When, in the 19th century, Barcelona broke free of its suffocating walls, it built a great promenade to join the upper part of the city, the mountain side, with Ciutat Vella, the sea side. La Rambla consists of five stretches with different names. Beginning in Plaça de Catalunya and heading down La Rambla, towards the port, is La Rambla de Canaletes, where you find the Font de Canaletes, a 19th century fountain. If you drink from it, they say you are sure to return to Barcelona. A little further down is La Rambla dels Estudis, so called because one of the city’s first universities was located here. It closed in the 18th century when Philip V abolished the Catalan universities. In this area you can also find Palau de la Virreina, a fine example of civil architecture and a great gift of love from the Viceroy of Peru to his second wife. Continuing towards the sea, you come to La Rambla de les Flors, the only place in 19th century Barcelona you could buy flowers, and which keeps the trade alive today. La Boqueria and the Liceu, one a temple to food and the other to music, begin the fourth Rambla, La Rambla dels Caputxins, so called because of the Capuchin monastery that used to be there. The fifth part, La Rambla de Santa Mónica, where traditionally the artists and painters are located, links this spectacular boulevard with the sea.

La Rambla, which used to connect Barcelona from top to bottom, is an unmissable part of the city, the avenue that everyone has to pass down at some moment or other. To experience La Rambla is to experience Barcelona.