Romantic in Barcelona

Romantic Barcelona runs on three clocks: the city after dark, the sea at sunset and the wine country by day. At night the Modernista houses of Passeig de Gràcia are floodlit, and the loop from the Arc de Triomf, the red-brick gateway of the 1888 World Fair, down to the Columbus monument at the harbour is the classic way to see them. Sant Jordi, 23 April, is the Catalan lovers' day, when roses and books change hands and stalls fill the Rambla. Out of town the Penedès town of Sant Sadurní d'Anoia pairs cava cellars with Simón Coll, a chocolate maker since 1840. Further inland, Oller del Mas makes organic wine in a 10th-century castle in the Bages, facing Montserrat and its Romanesque Black Madonna, La Moreneta.

Barcelona romantic tours run from two-hour evenings to a full day. The private ones are the closest to the theme: a sidecar-motorcycle ride past the lit-up monuments at sunset and after dark, a two-hour sunset sail along the coast, and a phone-led treasure hunt through the Gothic Quarter written for couples. Two shared evenings, a sip-and-paint night with sangria and a craft-beer tasting with live music, are sociable rather than intimate. By day, Gaudí and the Modernista houses take three hours by bike. Montserrat with tapas and wine at Oller del Mas is a seven-hour group day, longer versions arrive by rack railway, and a private eight-hour tour joins Montjuïc, the Gothic Quarter and Montserrat. The cava-and-chocolate day goes by train to Sant Sadurní.

Practical. June is the easy month: afternoons average 25.5C, nights 17.9C, and the sun shines about 267 hours, against 118 in December. From July nights stay above 20C, so the sail and the sidecar are shirt-sleeve evenings; between November and February nights fall to 5 or 6C and the open sidecar wants a coat. The monastery stands around 700 m up and is cooler than the city. Penedès harvests run from late August into September. Cards work almost everywhere, and rounding up the bill is enough in a bar.