Barcelona walking tours - Village bars and churches in wine country

Photograph © Trevor. More featured photographers here.

Basics

grade leisurely
base Barcelona
location tags Alt Penedès, Avinyonet del Penedès, La Granada del Penedès, Les Cabanyes del Penedès, Pacs del Penedès, Sant Martí Sarroca, Santa Fe del Penedès, Vilafranca del Penedès, Vilobí del Penedès,
theme tags ecclesiastical, military, wine,
walking distance 13 km / 8.08 miles
walking time, excluding breaks 4 hr
total return travel time from base to walk 2 hr
total time from "hello" to "goodbye" 7.40 hr
fiestas and markets in places we go through - combine a walk and some partying or shopping!
  • last Sunday in January (pilgrimage to local shrine with giants/dragon/food/drink/religious service)
  • third Sunday in January
  • second weekend in July (village fiesta)
  • August 29-September 2 (major town fiesta/dancing animals/food/drink etc)
  • October 31 and November 1 (big flower market for All Souls)
  • second weekend in October (village fiesta)
  • November 1 (castellers festival)
  • three weeks before Christmas (Christmas market)
  • weekend before Christmas (poultry competition/market/giant chicken dancing/wine and food)
  • every Saturday (big general purpose street market)
  • every second Sunday of the month from October to June (antiques/collectors/artesans)

Note that there are also events in most places on January 6 (Three Kings), Carnival, Easter, April 23 (St George), June 23 (St John), and September 11 (Catalan regional/national day)

The walk

This walk takes you through the heart of the Penedès, one of Spain’s most interesting (and tasty) wine regions, with a fine selection of local bars to cheer your spirits en route.

We start in an ancient village on the Roman road from Cadiz to Rome (Hannibal came this way), featuring a 10th century castle and a rather interesting local telly station.

Then we walk along olive tree-lined tracks through vineyards and past farms (1, 2 (Montserrat in distance), 3, 4) to …

(Before we get to where we’re going to, if you tell us in advance we can fix up a tasting of some excellent wines on a small farm just off the path. Think an hour, and wobbly knees. Back to the chase:)

… a tiny settlement with one of the coolest Romanesque chapels you’re ever likely to see (1, 2,) and some quite extraordinary Gothic murals (weekdays only - tell us if you want to see them and we’ll talk to the guy with the keys).

There’s a very nice bar in the village where we can either take a snack or, if you tell us in advance, have a superb traditional-style meal with excellent local ingredients and wines.

Next stop is another small settlement with a rather pretty church and usually a couple of elderly market gardeners to talk to, followed by a hilltop shrine.

Then it’s down into Vilafranca, the beautiful small town around which the local wine industry is based.

If you want to see the markets in Vilafranca and don’t want to get up too early, we can do this walk in reverse.

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rank photo title base walking distance (km) difficulty total travel time (hr) fiestas themes