COSTA BRAVA

Calella de Palafrugell keeps its whitewashed walls and boats drawn onto the sand; Sa Tuna, quieter and tucked away just north, remains almost untouched. It is the same coastline that kept calling Salvador Dalí back to Cadaqués, throughout his life.

The vaulted stone houses along Port Bo, known as les voltes, once sheltered fishermen mending nets and auctioning the day's catch; each July the same shoreline fills with the Cantada d'Havaneres, old sailors' songs about emigrating to Cuba, sung as the sun goes down. Further up the coast, the whitewashed village of Cadaqués drew Salvador Dalí back for decades. He and Gala made their home in a cluster of joined fishermen's huts at nearby Portlligat, its courtyards topped with giant white eggs, an olive tree growing straight through the terrace, now open as the Casa-Museu Dalí.