I read an article about Girona this morning in one of Toronto's free daily newspapers and decided to post it here... I hope you all enjoy it!
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"Ancient walled city in Spain untrampled by tourists"

Built on an ancient route linking Spain to the rest of Europe, the walled city of Girona has been fought over for ages.
Iberian people were here 2,500 years ago, the Via Augusta ran by linking Rome to Cadiz, and Napoleon had it under siege in 1809. Still, it's been untrampled by mass tourism.
Overshadowed by its elegant Catalan neighbour, Barcelona, or bypassed en route to the isolated, sandy coves of the Mediterranean's nearby Costa Brava, Girona belongs on any short list of Spain's most enticing cities, joining Seville, Cordoba, and Granda in the south, or San Sebastian in the northern Basque country.
The provincial capital of 73,000 is a quilt of architectural styles mixing modern and classical, but the focal point is the medieval old city, which spreads out beneath ancient walls and watchtowers on a hillside on the east bank of the Onyar River.
The old city is compact and easily walkable. The centrepiece is the vast Gothic cathedral with its Baroque façade poised above an imposing staircase. The site has long been an area of worship with a mosque and synagogue once occupying nearby ground.
Building was begun in 1292 and much of the structure dates from the 14th and 15th centuries. The belltower is Romanesque and the aisleless Gothic nave is one of the world's widest at 75 feet. But the cathedral is only one of the ancient churches, buildings and monuments that line the cobbled streets.
A few minutes walk alongside the intact medieval walls is the Jewish quarter - known as the Call - a maze of steep, shaded alleyways centered on Carrer La Forca. It was home to one of Iberia's most prosperous Jewish communities in the 13th century, numbering about 1,000 - 20 percent of the city's population at the time.
A good way to view the old city is from atop the walls. It will take about 30 minutes to go from one end near the Placa Catalunya to the other end near the cathedral and Arab Baths.
Few cities its size have more museums. Girona, originally named Oppidum Gerunda by the Romans and located just 35 miles from the French border, has a half-dozen, including Spain's only Cinema Museum, the City History Museum, the Archaeological Museum, the Art Museum (located in the Episcopal Palace) and the Jewish History Museum, located on the site of Girona's third and last synagogue.
Girona had a strong Arab presence for several hundred years following the Moorish conquest of the Iberian peninsula in 711. The first reference to Jews in Girona dates from 898, and they stayed until they were expelled with Muslims - or forced to convert - under the 1492 edict of expulsion.
"There is a lot of history behind every stone in the city," says Neus Casellas, who works at the Jewish History Museum. "Cross the river and you are in a modern city with a dynamic university. We are a small city, so you feel things are on a human scale where you can walk anywhere."
Her boyfriend, Roger Martinez, seldom forgets Girona's proximity to mountain and sea.
"The Mediterranean is an hour away, the Pyrenees are an hour away and there's Barcelona. It's really like a village, not a large city," he says.
Another good way to view Girona is from its dozen bridges that join the medieval eastern half in the space of a mile with the new city on the western bank.
A footbridge linking Placa de Independencia on the western side with the Rambla Libertat - a promenade of shops, cafes and shaded archways on the eastern side - offers a postcard view.
This is where Girona shows its colour.
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SusiLaGallega

What a great article! There was another one in an L.A. paper this week. If I can figure out how to do it without having to type the whole thing again (I have a scanner at work, but no email and no disc drive; and email and disc use at home, but no scanner ), I will post it. It was mostly about the Jewish roots in Spain.