Tarragona, Chapter One

Mar's family house

After a decade of hustle and bustle in New York City, Mar and I moved to Tarragona, Spain. This small Mediterranean city will be our home for the time being. The reasons that compelled us to move were multiple, but they can be summarized in a single cliche: midlife crisis.

Pine tree parcel across the house

New York is a wonderful city in many, many ways, but in general, we outgrew its pace and attitude. We got tired of the amount of work it takes to live there with any level of personal satisfaction that is not ultimately driven by life in the office. We are happy we have lived there. We made a few very good friends. We gained a lot of experience and we saved a little bit. However, we were ready for a change.

Mar wetting her feet in Platja de l'Arrabassada

Some thought we were crazy. After all, we had great jobs (read “great salaries”), an affordable rental apartment (read “an under-maintained rent stabilized apartment”) in a great neighborhood (read “Brooklyn”) with an amazing garden. We had no debt. What else could we ask for? Some thought we should have gone to the shrink and gotten a good dose of chemicals to make us see the light. But we took our growing unhappiness with our lives there as a sign that we needed to leave while we could; while we were in the financial plus side (read “no mortgage or children”) and healthy (read “no terminal disease”).

Street in the old part of Tarragona's center

Mar’s parents keep the old family house for summer and weekend use that we could move into right away. It is a large house on a hectare of terraced land, some 200 meters from the sea. The garden’s terraces are planted with almond, fig, lemon, olive, peach, quince, and other fruit and ornamental trees such as cypresses, elms, palms, and pines. Across from the house and in the surroundings there are pine trees and garrigue. And at the bottom of the hill there is the Platja de l’Arrabassada or the Beach of the Uprooted Field, one of the nicest city beaches I have ever seen.

Painted building side in the old part of Tarragona's center

Tarragona has been an urban center at least since it was founded in the year 218 BC with the name Tarraco by the Romans. However, it was a center of human activity long before that with the Phoenicians, who called it ‘Tarchon, and even before them, the Iberics. All of these different peoples left their layers on the surface of the city where there are extensive Medieval ruins on top of Roman ruins, intermixed with Phoenician artifacts all over the Iberic foundation of megaliths.

Roman amphitheater of Tarragona

Today Tarragona has about 165,000 inhabitants, making it the second biggest city of Catalonia. Of course, this is nothing compared to New York City standards, but when traveling in the country side here, locals often describe to it as “too big a city”! Big city or not, the Tarragona city center has a beautiful Medieval section surrounded by a Roman wall. Trapped between this  wall and the Platja del Miracle, or Beach of The Miracle, lies the ruins of the Roman amphitheater. A few kilometers to the East there is also a beautifully preserved Roman aqueduct called El Pont del Diable, or The Devil’s Bridge. Tarragona lies in the coastal center of the province of the same name. Within an hour’s travel we can easily access all the regions that radiate from it. There are, for instance, the wine Denominatons of Origin of Terra Alta, Montsant, Priorat, Conca de Barbera, and Penedes.

Facade of the Cathedral of Tarragona

Museum of History of Tarragona

I have only lived here for just over a month and I already love Tarragona. It is small enough and big enough. There is a lot of history and tradition on its walls and stones, but there is also a relaxed Mediterranean attitude that makes it a very welcoming place. Everywhere people take time to greet or assist you. You may ask a stranger for directions on the street and they will stop and take a few minutes to explain to you how to get there with no apparent sign of being inconvenienced or in need to do so quickly. The fish monger or the bread maker will converse at length with real interest in your story, sharing bits of local history and trivia while doing so. Walking about the old section of downtown is magical: The flow of time is evident everywhere, and, more interestingly, the layering of it with transitions, sometimes subtle and sometimes not so, between the different eras.

Cyclopean stonework under the posterior Roman brickwork

Tarragona is a welcomed change from New York City.