The first thing that comes to your mind
when you listen La Rioja is probably the
wine bearing the same name. It is
produced here, in the smallest of
Spain's Autonomous Communities,
located south of Basque Country
at the occidental extreme of Ebro
valley.
Haro is the center of wine
production, and a well-known
folkloristic event is its annual "battle
of the wine".
Of major touristic interest is the the
Camino de Santiago (Way of Saint James),
a part of which leads through La Rioja.
The monasteries along that way are not
only of high artistic but as well
cultural importance, here was written
the first text ever in Castilian
Spanish.
Along Camino de Santiago are lined up
monumental towns of great beauty:
Calahorra, Arnedo, San Millan de la
Cogolla, Santo Domingo de la Calzada,
and Logroņo, founded already by
Romans and today the region's capital.
Worth a visit is as well the area Tierra
de Cameros, with outstanding
landscapes, grottos and caves.
La Rioja offers great possibilities for
rural tourism, and if you like hunting,
fishing, climbing or hiking it is
certainly a place to take into
consideration.
Speaking of regional gastronomy, we come
back to La Rioja wine, which exists in
seven varieties, four of them red and
three white. Anyhow one shouldn't forget
about another speciality, Pimientos del
Piquillo, a delicious and sweet kind of
red peppers. Highlights of traditional
cooking include lamb, and the marzipan
of Sierra de Cameros, of high reputation
in all Spain.
Andalucia |
Aragon |
Asturias |
Basque Country |
Cantabria |
Castilla-La Mancha |
Castilla y Leon |
Catalonia |
Extremadura |
Galicia |
Madrid |
Murcia |
Navarra |
La Rioja |
Valencian Community
|
