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Sitges is a lovely town 35 Km South of Barcelona. It is absolutely worth a visit. Sitges is known for its carnival, its nice weather and its night life -- especially famous for its gay life.

If you have plans to visit Barcelona, and want to spend a couple of days in nice beach town, look no further. Sitges is also the perfect one day excursion from Barcelona. The list of things to do here is almost endless. If you ever come to Sitges, be prepared to want to spend the rest of your life in this unique town.

Sitges coastline sailing

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Sitges (pronounced [ˈsidʒəs] in Catalan; [ˈsɪdʒəs] in English), Catalonia, Spain is a small city about 35 kilometers southwest of Barcelona renowned worldwide for its Film Festival and Carnival. Between the hills and the sea, it is known for its much-frequented beaches, nightspots, and historical sites.

While the roots of Sitges' artsy reputation date back to the late 19th century, when Catalan painter Santiago Rusiñol took up residence there during the summer, the town really came into its own during the 1960s, when it was the only center for the counterculture on the mainland of Spain (then still under the dictatorship of Francisco Franco), and became known as a sort of "Ibiza in miniature".

Today, Sitges can be considered a dynamic cultural oasis, basing its economy on tourism and culture offering more than 4,500 hotel beds, half of them in four-star hotels. The firm commitment for quality infrastructures has converted Sitges into a first-class destination in terms of tourism of congresses, conferences, seminars and company meetings in the Mediterranean area.

It is also a gay tourist town - in July and August gay men and lesbians visit Sitges as "one of the most popular gay holiday spots in Europe".[1]

Sitges is very international. Almost 35% of the ca. 25.642 inhabitants are from the Netherlands, Great Britain, France and Scandinavia whose children can attend international schools.

Museums Cau Ferrat Museum : Cau Ferrat was the house-cum-studio of artist and writer Santiago Rusiñol ( b. Barcelona 1861; d. Aranjuez 1931 ), one of the leading figures of Catalan Modernisme.

Maricel Museum : The American Charles Deering (1852-1927) had the Palau Maricel built to house his art collection in an attempt to copy the precedent set by Cau Ferrat. In 1921 Deering returned to the U.S. and the palace was emptied. In 1969 however, the building regained the use to which it had seemed destined since its creation, by welcoming a major private collection, a donation by Dr. Pérez Rosales, mostly dedicated to medieval art.

Streetview in SitgesMuseu Romàntic "Can Llopis": The Museu Romàntic "Can Llopis" is a perfectly preserved 19th century house which allows us to take a closer look at the lifestyle of a family of Catalan householders who lived their splendour during the years of Romanticism. It was built at the end of the 18th century in a neo-classical style with sober, elegant lines and very little decoration. Faithful to the Mediterranean tradition, the house has a central patio with a staircase leading to the main living quarters. The interior design shows how tastes changed from the time the building was built - when they were strongly influence by aristocratic styles - to the triumph of the forms of bourgeois Romanticism.

Gastronomy

Xató is Sitges' most typical dish. It appeared in the press for the first time in a report about Maundy Thursday published in the local newspaper Eco de Sitges the 16th of February of 1896. The report refers to a meal that three days before had gathered together a selected group of Catalan artists and intellectuals, Santiago Rusiñol, Miquel Utrillo, Gaietà Buigas and others. The name “xató” comes from an expression pronounced years before by Canudas, a member of the Rusiñol's group. The main ingredients of xató are escarole salad, cod, tuna, anchovies and arbequine and black olives. However, the essence of the dish is its sauce, made with scalded chillies, toasted almonds, garlic, olive oil, salt, vinegar and hot peppers. The complete xató meal consists of some different omelettes or fricandó (a typical Catalan hot meal) and as a dessert coca de llardons (typical Catalan cake, made from pork scratchings). And to drink a good bottle of Penedès black wine.

Apart from the xató, there are some other typical dishes from Sitgetan cuisine, which turn fish into an unequivocal sign of identity. Rice in the Sitgetan way, stewed sepia with potatoes and all-i-oli (typical Catalan garlic sauce), bull de tonyina (typical sailors´ dish made with tuna fish), fideuà (typical sailors´ dish similar to paella, but with noodles and seafood) or stuffed peppers with cod. Such variety guarantees the extraordinary richness and singularity of our gastronomy.

As for drinks, malvasia is the most representative one. We are talking about an oloroso and delicate liquor wine, excellent for desserts. The name “malvasia” comes from the Peloponnesian port Monembasía. In Sitges, the Hospital Sant Joan Baptista continues producing and marketing malvasia according to the traditional method and for charity. The annual production is approximately of 4.000 bottles (produced by the vines owned by the Hospital). The Sitgetan malvasia is produced and matured in the wine cellars of the Hospital.

Beaches

Sitges has 17 sand beaches. Four of them are in the East: the first one called Les Botigues at the beginning of the coast, next to the beachs of Castelldefels and the other three are following the coast of Garraf (Road C-31). There are eleven urban beaches and two in the west. These last two have difficult access. The last one (Playa del Muerto) is the gay beach.

The main beach in May, in the background the church of Sant Bartomeu I Santa TeclaAll the eastern and urban beaches have access facilities, flags indicating the state of the sea and most of them have quality diplomas and blue flags awarded by the European Union.