Granada holds a very special place in my heart. It’s the magical city where I lived and studied for four years, where I fell in love, where I lived innumerable adventures. Now that I’m back in Rome, when I feel nostalgic I close my eyes, and I relive the perfect day in Granada…
“I wake up late and walk to plaza del Triunfo, and I sit down in one the tables in the sun to have breakfast at a nice little tea-shop called Teteria Levante. I order a batido de platano (banana milk-shake), because this place is famous for its delicious milkshakes. They even make an avocado milkshake- although i’ve never been courageous enough to try it, somehow it’s audacious green colour doesn’t say breakfast to me-, but please let me know how it is if you ever try it out! Of course I also order the classic item of the Andalusian breakfast, the tostada de tomate, a toasted baguette with extra virgin olive oil, fresh tomato pulp and salt… my favorite breakfast in the world!
After enjoying my breakfast I walk under the nearby Arco Elvira to enter thearab quarter – Albaycin – through it’s southern door. I walk the steep pebbled roads up to the Mirador de San Nicolas where I sit and admire the most stunning view of the Alhambra. The Mirador is filled with hippies selling handmade jewlery and handicraft leather in a spontaneus market. But the best of all is the gipspy sitting in the center of the square playing his flamenco guitar and singing the tunes of Camaròn – who was a legend of flamenco music in Andalucia.
Afterwards, I head for tapas in my favourite fish bar in the Albaycin, El Ladrillo II. It’s a restaurant too, but I like to sit at the bar to people-watch while I sip my beer and wait for my tapas. Some of the most interesting caracters and street artists of the neighboorhod have lunch here, and just observing their outfits and style I almost feel like I’m at the theatre! Then my tapa arrives, it’s always a surprise because it depends on what the lady in the kitchen is cooking up, and what was most fresh in the market that morning. Today its fried squid legs for the first tapa, grilled shrimp for the second and fried pescadilla (the fish that bites it tail!) for the last… I savour every bite!
Then I take a walk to lose myself in the streets of the Sacromonte– the picturesque gypsy quarter-, and then I head downhill to shop around in the street Caldereria Nueva, that everybody here calls Calle de las Teterias (the tea-shop street). The shops that line the road convey a taste of Andalucia’s arab heritage and there are some great-value leather hand-bags and backpacks, maroccan lamps and moorish iron tea-sets with little coloured glasses. Stopping by one of the teterias for tea is mandatory, of course! I order my favourite moruno tea, green tea boiled with fresh mint leaves and sugar… it takes my tastebuds to Morocco!
In the evening, it’s time for tapas again and I head for a great place called Bodegas Castañeda in Calle Elvira, where you can see a huge collection of jamon hanging from the ceiling! I order a Rioja red wine, a tomato salad and a tabla caliente, which is a selection of the best hot tapas on the menu: tortilla de patatas (potato omlette), stuffed peppers, habas con jamon (lima beans stewed ham) and much, much more! Then it’s time to head to off to the bars in calle Elvira to dance the night away to the tunes of live flamenco music… and of course -in truly spanish style- it isn’t time to go to bed until about seven o’clock in the morning!”

So how did you like my perfect day in Granada?
Everybody should live a perfect day in Granada at least once in a lifetime… so what are you waiting for?!

Call our reservation agents at 1-800-621-2259 and book a stay in Granada in one of our great hotels!

And when you do, write and tell me about your own perfect day in Granada!

Hasta pronto!

– Chiara Galli –