Barcelona for coming back
The second visit is the best one: with no monument list, the city opens up. This is the Barcelona that remains when the tourist leaves — neighborhoods, markets and the real mountain.
The pending neighborhoods
All of Gràcia with its squares, the Raval of bookshops, Sarrià with its village air and Poblenou with its sheds and its beach. One per afternoon, with its bar and its market, no plan but to lose them.
Mountain and sea at the edges
Collserola and the Carretera de les Aigües at dawn, Montjuïc's cemetery with its silent views, and the eastern beaches without a tourist towel. The queue-free city exists.
The local calendar
Any neighborhood's festa major, a church concert, open-air cinema in summer and the markets' strong days. The second Barcelona is lived with a neighbor's diary.