Fall is the perfect season to visit Southern Spain. Pleasant weather, minimal crowds, bountiful harvests. Today, licensed Andalusia guide Francesco has joined us to share his favourite fall experiences in and around the charming city of Seville.
Blessed with a mild climate, Seville is a charming destination during autumn. Mass tourism has already disappeared from the streets, locals welcome more selected travelers with fresh fruit juices: it’s orange season. I invite you to take part in the same experiences that I enjoy every year.
1. Offer your palate new sensations. Seasonal fresh mushrooms and asparagus, streets perfumed like roasted chestnuts, savory olives just picked from the trees. Experience quality dishes, for this is the season of Andalusian tapas such as spinach with chickpeas,
puchero stewpot, venison and Spain’s best cured ham. Or try our winter seafood: cod, red mullet, wild sea bass and sea bream, pink prawns. You may like to feed your taste for wines, and explore the route of
mosto in Sevilla and Al-Jarafe, the “fertile hills” of our ancestors that are overlooking the city.
2. Plan a day in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, a lovely town spotted in the upper edge of the famed Sherry triangle. Hometown of Manzanilla fine dry wine, the same wine that Bizet’s Carmen loved to such an extent, she sang:
Près des remparts de Séville /chez mon ami Lillas Pastia / J’irai danser la Séguidille et boire du Manzanilla… Sanlúcar lays opposite the Park of Doñana the bird watching sanctuary, between the estuary of Guadalquivir River and the Atlantic Ocean. Have a walk among the centuries-old fields of salt or perfumed pinewood, while pink flamingo birds fly over your head. After dinner, enjoy Flamenco dancers flying on their heels and on the strings of their guitars.
3. Treat yourself to a walk in the Sierra and the
dehesa pasture lands, watching the wild asparagus grow,
pata negra pigs ranging free under the holm trees, and deer and cows feeding with fresh grass.
4. Enjoy the architecture of Seville’s huge Gothic cathedral and majestic Alcazar palace, free from the noise of big groups. Establish a personal, intimate relation with the masterpieces of Diego Velázquez, Bartolomé Murillo, Francisco Zurbarán, Pedro Roldán and la Roldana, Francisco de Herrera el Mozo. And again Pietro Torrigiano and many Juans: Valdés Leal, Martínez Montañés, De Mesa. Remember: when you visit a museum, there’s a better option than trying and see every painting in two hours. Select a few and take pleasure in establishing a dialogue with them. Give them some time, and they will talk to you.
Thank you, Francesco, for sharing the many temptations on offer this October in Seville! Any travelers headed to the South of Spain should consider getting in touch with Francesco to talk about designing an itinerary of uniquely Andalusian travel experiences.