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Second evening
That evening I head into the new town to meet an old friend, Joan Ferrer (Joan is the Catalan version of Juan), who had helped with my book on Catalonia. I meet some of his language students aged 14-18 who tell me what it is like to grow up in Girona, the youngest summing up with typically proud chauvinism: “Girona is probably the best city in Spain in which to live.”

Joan and I walk across a bridge over the Onyar river that divides the anonymous new town from the mediaeval heart. Five-storey, 19th century ochre homes rise from the water. On a wall, ‘Indepèndencia’ has been scrawled and Joan wryly observes: “It is just as likely to be demanding independence from Catalonia as it is Catalan independence from Spain.”

Beneath a barrel-vaulted Gothic ceiling we chat over duck and turnip casserole. On the walls are sepia photographs of the 1920s when Cal Ros first opened as a restaurant. The only time the restaurant was forced to close was during part of the Civil War when rationing was at its fiercest. Joan was just seven when the war ended in 1938, but he still has clear memories, the most indelible being of the endless line of refugees hurrying through in the rain, en route to France. At the time there was every reason to be hurrying through Girona. Today, there is absolutely none.

Where to be seen

• Nibble pastries and sip chocolate you can stand your spoon in at the wonderful old Art Nouveau café Antiga in Playa del Vi. Sit out under the vaulted arcade in fine weather.

• Sip Cava at any of the terraced cafés along the Rambla. Eat tapas at trendy Boira in the Playa de la Indepéndencia overlooking the river.

Girona inside track

• Gironins are Gironins, then Catalans, never Spaniards.

• Don't arrive at a restaurant before 9pm, as you'll probably find it closed - no one eats before then. If you get served a piece of toasted peasant bread, some tomatoes and a garlic clove, don't get sniffy. You are about to experience the heavenly pa-amb-tomata-i-pernil moment. Rub the garlic into the toast, squash the tomato on and sprinkle salt, add olive oil and ham. Bliss.

• Catalan cooking is Europe's great secret, typically marrying the best of the Mediterranean with the Pyrenees, sweet with savoury, fish with fowl.

• For modern Catalan dishes, try El Celler de Can Roca, carretera de Taial 40 (tel 34 972 222157). For cheaper, traditional country Catalan dishes in the old quarter, I recommend Cal Ros, Calle Cort Reail 9 (tel 34 972 217379) housed in a vaulted Gothic building. Main courses range from 6-18 euros (£6-£12). The pastries, some flavoured with anise-flavoured cream, are heavenly.

• Try the new wines from the bordering Empord' area, such as the Castillo Perelada Cabernet Sauvignon 1992.

• Lose yourself in the old city with its Roman walls, Gothic arcades, guild streets, precipitous alleys, Modernist cafés and bars. But try to tick off the following: the cathedral and its museum; El Centre Bonastruc –a Porta - the Jewish museum; the Roman ramparts; the Arab Baths that aren't Arab; El Monestir de Sant Pere de Galligants - a 12th century Benedictine Romanesque abbey housing Girona's Archaeological Museum; and El Museu d'Art de Girona.

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