departurescoffee

Spaghetti Westernara

As we’re based in Granada, at least once a month, my wife and I try to visit different places in Andalucia and more recently, of the places we have really grown to like is the province of Almería as it seems to have a strange and unique character to it.

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Playa de Cabo de Gata in January
There is of course the rugged coastline with the stunning beaches of Cabo de Gata and Mojacar, but although I had obviously read up about it beforehand, what took me most by surprise was the bleak majesty of the desert spaces in the heart of the province. And although I’ve never remotely been a fan of westerns, after having visited pueblos such as Rodalquilar and Los Albaricoques, I had a look online to see in more detail which films of the spaghetti western period had been filmed where and oddly, although the infrastructure is now quite different, at first glance they seemed to have changed very little.
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Desert near Tabernas, Almeria

Since then, I have now been completely converted and think spaghetti westerns, at least the ones in the famous Sergio Leone trilogy with Clint Eastwood, are fantastic. Having said that, so far I’ve only got round to the first two ‘A Fistful OF Dollars’ and ‘For A Few Dollars More’, but I’ve just downloaded the last one in the trilogy ‘The Good, The Bad and the Ugly’ and am really looking forward to it. And as for Almería, I look forward to spending much more time discovering the province in future.

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Clint Eastwood in full spaghetti western cowboy regalia in the desert near Tabernas, Almeria

For more information on the beautiful Cortijo del Fraile that they used in ‘For A Few Dollars More’ and ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ in addition to it inspiring Lorca to write ‘Blood Wedding’.

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Cortijo del Fraile, near Las Albaricoques, Almeria (Image courtesy of Hostal Rural Restaurante Alba)

4 comments

  2. Thanks for the article…, we will visiting Granada for the first time in April after a week of climbing in El Chorro …any recommendations…

    🙂

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    • Hi Richie. So much to see and do here in Granada! Firstly, I’d recommend looking at Molly’s blog at http://www.piccavey.com Her site is very informative and covers everything you’ll need to know about visiting Granada including major attractions such as the Alhambra, Generalife and the Albayzin, but also little-known bars, shops and places of interest. Personally, I love the gardens in the Carmen de los Martires and my favourite central bar is Los Tintos in Calle San Anton. If you eat meat, their lomo con ajos (pork with garlic) is fantastic and the best (free) tapa is berenjenas asadas con jamon crujiente (roast aubergine with crunchy jamon). Hope you enjoy your trip!

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