GOURMET TRAVELLER
City breaks
First stop is Popayán, a ‘Colombian Oxford’ set between two of the country’s most impenetrable mountain ranges. In April, leafy squares surrounded by sugar-cube buildings echo with the chanting of Easter processions while bowler hatted Guambiano women in traditional dress hawk more than eight types of potato from blankets that look like fragments of rainbow. Next, it’s on to Taormina – Sicily’s sophisticated glamour girl – where Hollywood starlets used to dance barefoot on balmy evenings to the plaintive sound of local folk music. Make like the great modernist writers by sipping iced amaro (herbal liqueur) on the seafront balconies of gracious hotels and hike along the seashore beneath flocks of raptors making their spring migration to northern Europe through the swirling mists of Mount Etna. Finally, follow in the footsteps of some of Spain’s most infamous monarchs to Valladolid, which has slowly faded from foreigners’ memories and remains a dignified bastion of
Castilian culture largely untouched by tourism. Spend your days feasting on meat dishes as rich as the incense that hangs in the air of its sombre Catholic churches, and evenings at vibrant riverside bars.
NOTE This supplement is reproduced from Food and Travel Magazine, which is published by Green Pea Publishing, London. All rights of the published material belong to Green Pea Publishing and may not be reproduced, whether in whole or part, without its prior written consent.