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| Tossa de Mar medieval village |
Costa Brava is the Catalan shore, that runs through 255 km (158 miles), from Portbou, France, to Blanes, Spain. It is composed of five regions that are Alt Empordà, Baix Empordà, Gironès, Pla de l’Estany and Selva.
The name of "Costa Brava" - wild coast - was first used in 1908 by Ferran Agulló, a poet inspired by the wild beauty of the shore.
As Good Friday and Easter Monday are bank holidays in Spain, we almost all decided to escape Barcelona and get a change of air. After looking for A LOT of potential destinations, we finally chose to go to Tossa de Mar, municipality in the province of Girona, in Selva.
Tossa is a village of 6,000 inhabitants that have lived principally from tourism since the movie Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (staring Ava Gardner) was shot there. Formerly, the population depended on wine, cork and fishing.
After about a 90-minutes bus journey, we finally arrived at the Tossa station, on top of the village. While going down, we could see the Roman villa of Ametllers (1st century BC - 6th century AD) that belonged to the Roman province of Tarraconensis. The villa was discovered in 1914 by Ignasi Melé and is made up of two distinct parts: “pars urbana” - urban part -, and “pars fructuaria” - rural part. The first one, on the top, was the noble part of the villa, were we can still notice thermal baths, a mosaic, a swimming pool, and marble sculptures. The other part, more in the bottom, was the place where the products like wine or grains were stocked.
Our spirit of adventure pushed us to first explore the “Vila Vella enceinte”, that dates from the 14th century. On the very top of the fortifications, that gives an amazing view of the shore, you can find a lighthouse that was built in 1917. But until the 19th century, the Santa Maria de Ripoll Monastery Abbot's castle actually standed there. The place has been a national historical monument since 1931. While bringing back down, you can enjoy the steep, narrow and charming streets of the historical centre.
After admiring the wonderful panorama, we decided to go to the beach and enjoy the sunshine. You should know that Tossa counts three main beaches:
- The Tossa Beach (Platja Gran), that faces up to the city centre and ends up at the foot of the castle
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| Platja Gran |
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| La Mar Menuda |
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| El Codolar |
On a side note, we spent the whole afternoon there, ignoring the dangers of the cloud-covered sun, having lunch, taking a nap and playing volleyball, and we finally almost all turned beet-red: the very first rays of the spring sunshine are always the worst ones!
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| The sunburned interns |
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