Getaway to Alt Penedès: Castles and mill-houses in the land of cava

You'll spend the first hours of your trip in Santa Margarida i els Monjos, where you'll visit the castle where Sant Raimund of Penyafort was born in 1185. This construction, which is considered to be a national cultural asset, is much more than just a castle: it preserves, among other items, the family home of the saint, a church of considerable dimensions with one sole nave, and a convent that was founded here by the Dominicans in the 17th century. The castle has been historically important on various occasions, such as in the Spanish Civil War, when it was used as a prison by the Republican side. After passing through a number of hands, the building currently belongs to the Town Council of Santa Margarida i els Monjos, and in summer there are guided tours of the gardens at dusk, which is a good way to begin your trip to the Penedès region. If you're interested in exploring the interior of the castle and its dependencies, there are guided tours on the second Sunday of every month.

You can also enter the castle, if you've booked a place on the Air Raid Shelter and Aircraft Route. As well as visiting the old Republican prison, you'll be able to explore air-raid shelters in Serral, located a few kilometres away.

This morning while you're still in Santa Margarida i els Monjos, you can visit Molino del Foix, which today is a History and Nature Study Centre. The building itself first appeared in records a thousand years ago. And it was certainly one of the first constructions to be finished in the town. It was used as the local mill house for flour production and was later converted into a winery and store house for wine. Nowadays it has an interesting botanical garden outside, while inside it's divided into different spaces: a hall for temporary exhibitions – in which you can still see the original ceiling of the room that once housed the grindstone; a multipurpose space on the first floor which houses the Environmental Documentation Centre; and the current millstone room on the bottom level, which has been restored, respecting its original architectural traits. This last space hosts everything from talks to concerts.

It stays light until late in spring and summer, and so in the afternoon, when the heat of the day has died down a little, we suggest an excursion to the Foix Nature Park, a natural space that extends over 3,000 hectares, especially marked by the presence of the reservoir that gives it its name. As well as being one of the few wetland areas in the Penedès region, it's important for the diversity of its landscapes and of the fauna that lives here. As a transit area for various civilisations throughout history, the nature park also contains a number of interesting architectural sites. So all you have to do now is to choose an itinerary and start walking.

You'll be spending the entire last day of your trip in Sant Sadurní d'Anoia, one of the best-known towns in the region and famous for its cava, making it the ideal place to host the study centre devoted to that sparkling wine. The Cava Interpretation Centre (CIC) is housed in a distillery (La Fassina de Can Guineu) dating from the early 19th century, and uses the latest technology to allow visitors to experience, for example, the Philoxera Festival in large-format images and explore the cava-making process. As you can probably imagine, you'll learn a lot about cava at the centre, but you can also find out a lot about other aspects of the town.

And since man (and woman) cannot live on cava alone, we suggest ending your visit to Alt Penedès in the sweetest possible way: with a visit to the Simón Coll Chocolate Experience. Founded in 1840, this chocolate manufacturer nowadays offers guided tours of its facilities. There's an audiovisual space and a reconstruction of the traditional workroom, and you can also observe how some chocolate products are made and, of course, call in at the factory shop to make your purchase from the more than 400 chocolate products on offer.