Get rub of the green in Spain...

sands of Playa de San Lorenzo, which stretches out for a glorious 1.5km, is highly recommended.

It’s also well worth paying a visit to the city’s Roman baths and the fishermen’s quarter of Cimadevilla.

On the outskirts, meanwhile, stands Spain’s largest building, Universidad Laboral de Gijón — a former orphanage built between 1946 and 1956, only to be later abandoned and now housing several cultural institutes. The vast complex also boasts the largest elliptical church in the world.

Leaving the big cities behind, we checked out some more of Asturias’s lesser-known destinations such as Ribadesella and Lastres, which offered some picture-perfect backdrops for a practised poser such as myself.

The last stop on our Asturian adventure was in the town of Llanes — not quite a hidden gem as it is a firm favourite among tourists, but its pristine beaches would certainly give anything in the Costa del Sol or Costa Brava a run for their money, especially with the bonus of some stunning mountains in the background to add to the scenic pleasure.

Hilariously, one of the beaches in Llanes has the unfortunate name of Playa de Poo — but rest assured, it is safe (and clean) to visit!

Something a bit different in Llanes is a public art installation by Basque artist Agustín Ibarrola called The Cubes of Memory — a mass of giant painted concrete blocks on the water’s edge with colours and shapes which take on new forms depending on their interaction with the water and light.

A special mention too for Asturian cuisine — the seafood is fantastic, in particular the fresh anchovies (which I had hitherto avoided like the plague), while the local bean stew, fabada, is a hearty meal for a cold day.

Asturias is also famed as the largest cheesemaking region in Europe, with one highlight being the Cabrales blue cheese which is aged for months in caves in the mountains.

The area also has a rich history of cider-making, and its towns and cities are brimming with cider houses (called ‘sidrerías’), where servers use a unique method of pouring the cider from a height to give the drink some extra effervescence and to help release its aromas.

We then headed across the border to the equally enchanting province of Cantabria.

Our first port of call was the Picos de Europa mountain range and national park, which also extends into Asturias and the neighbouring region of Castile y León.

Here, the Fuente Dé cable car brought us up to over 1,800m above