This past weekend, I took a trip to Barcelona, Spain with nine of the other Chigi Babies during our personal travel time.  The interior design girls were very excited to get there because they had studied a lot of the city’s architecture. I couldn’t wait to get there because I had always heard so many wonderful things about the city, and had also learned a lot about the city’s art in an art history class. All of us on the trip continuously joked that we would be moving there one day.
Aside from the paella, tapas, sangria, and soccer, the main thing everybody knows about Barcelona is Gaudi. He was the most important artist of his time.  His most famous works are Sagrada Familia and Park Güell. Sagrada Familia is a ginormous church that still hasn’t been completed! Park Güell is a large park, that was originally intended to be a housing development, covered in beautiful mosaics.  Even though these two sites are the most popular, one can simply be walking down any street and stumble upon a work of Gaudi.
While in Barelona, our hostel provided a free walking tour. Going on this tour was one of my best decisions. I learned so much history about the city. Barcelona is different from the rest of Spain. It is mostly made up of people called Catalans. The Catalans are very proud people and still want to be their own independent country. They have their own language, architecture, art, and traditional foods. The girls and I loved learning about their history and culture.

At the end of the weekend, we were excited to get back to our palace in Ariccia, but Barcelona was definitely a nice change of scenery.  The people, city, and food were all beautiful. The city has something for everybody.  We all found a different piece of the city to call our favorite. If I could suggest one place to travel to during the free time within this program, it would definitely be to my future home, Barcelona.
 
Ashley Lorenz