The Most Beautiful Villages of Spain

Aside from Seville's storybook cobblestone streets and Barcelona's fantastical architecture, Spain is home to countless romantic, vibrant villages. This pretty volume showcases over 30 of them, from eastern Spain, Andalucia, northern Spain and central Spain. Rural Spain's riches range from 17th-century towers (as in the Andalucian village of Medina Sidonia) to walled cities like Albarracin in the eastern part of the country. Palmer, whose photographs have enlivened other titles in the Most Beautiful Villages series, offers impressive shots capturing the villages' allure. Among the highlights are a photo of Platya S'aranella's sandy inlet, in which a black cat poses inside a chipped rowboat, and a view of Almonaster la Real, a secluded town near the Portuguese border which is shown nestled between woody brush and sweeping mountains. The color photos are accompanied by captions and brief essays on each village, and a short section on dining and accommodations in Spain concludes the book.