Girona, verdict by verdict

Girona is the Catalan city that punches hardest above its size: a walled old town of stacked stone lanes, a cathedral with the widest Gothic nave in Christendom, one of Europe's best-preserved Jewish quarters in El Call, and a restaurant scene anchored by triple-starred El Celler de Can Roca. The Passeig de la Muralla walls walk and the colourful Onyar riverfront houses give it a scale and a look all its own.

The caveats are size and timing. Most visitors cover the sights in a day and a half and it works better as a two-night base than a week; the Ryanair-dominated airport sits 11 km out and is really a Barcelona satellite, so anyone expecting Girona to be Barcelona is 90 km off. The famous restaurants book out months ahead, so the food scene mostly means excellent everyday menus rather than the starred ones, Mondays close several museums and top restaurants, and the old town is steep, most lanes steps or ramps.

Two days is the shape: one for the cathedral, El Call, the baths and the walls walk, one for the Figueres Dali museum thirty minutes away or a slow food day, and a third opens Besalu or the Costa Brava, for which Girona is the calmest base in Catalonia. Spring and autumn are ideal, May's Temps de Flors fills the old town with flowers, and trains reach Barcelona in about forty minutes on the high-speed line.