speak the culture spain

[...]...Introduction Speak the Culture books Learn how weather, war and disparate cultures forged modern day Spain give you the keys Acquaint yourself with the writers who turned national soul searching into literary gold to a nation’s culture Get to know world-famous artists and architects, their paintings and buildings Investigating the people, the way they live and their creative heroes, the series unlocks the passions... Spain is the second most popular tourist destination in the world 9 1 Identity: the building blocks of Spanish culture 2 Literature and philosophy 3 Art and architecture 4 Performing arts 5 Cinema and fashion 6 Media and communications 7 Food and drink 8 Living culture: the details of modern spain 1.1.2 Local colour: the autonomías of Spain Northern Spain The stripe of northern Spain running from the. .. throughout the year If you can’t stand the heat… The flow of Spanish life has long been guided by the weather, the most obvious example being the daily siesta While not as widespread as of old, the early afternoon nap can still be a necessary response to the torporinducing heat of summer Life’s a breeze: windy culture In Catalonia they brace themselves against the tramontana, a face-slapping northerly that... pretty dry The Pyrenees and the northern coastal regions are cooler and take the lion’s share of Spain s rain from weather systems rolling in off the Atlantic In the south, Andalusia can be jovially warm throughout the winter but aggressively hot in summer Along the Mediterranean coast the climate is generally dry, mild in winter and often hot and humid in summer Many of the sierras retain snow on their... you to the creative icons that have become ingrained in the Spanish psyche, from Velázquez to Lorca, Cervantes to Almodóvar Finally, we explore how the Spanish live, revealing the passions, habits and tensions that shape modern life With these three strands Speak the Culture: Spain unravels Spanish DNA Absorb the Spanish reverence for food and wine 1 Meet the modern icons of Spanish cinema and the film-makers... reach of the Pyrenees anchors the region to the French border, while the Ebro Valley and plains of the south reach out for a much drier Spain The Euskadi way of life is ingrained in much of Navarre’s north, but the rest of the region resists any marriage with neighbouring Basque lands, pulsing instead with the strong Navarrese spirit, a reminder that the kingdom of Navarre had considerable clout in the. .. 10th century The earliest named Spanish poet, Gonzalo de Berceo, lived just down the road in the 13th century With its vineyards and market gardens, La Rioja provides northern Spain with a final greenish fling Landlocked and small, the region cradles the early stages of the Ebro Valley where the weather perks up and starts to find its Mediterranean form Rioja is the star of Spanish wine, and the region’s... helpful lists decipher the complexities of a foreign culture, from composers to chefs, poets to presidents, so that you might get to know the country as one of its own citizens Discover who’s who in Spanish music and theatre, and learn why flamenco is so important Speak the Culture: Spain begins with the country’s foundations – the terrain, history and thought processes on which the nation is built Next... can seem worlds apart 5 1 Identity: the building blocks of Spanish culture 2 Literature and philosophy 3 Art and architecture 4 Performing arts 5 Cinema and fashion 6 Media and communications 7 Food and drink 8 Living culture: the details of modern spain 1.1.1 The lie of the land Islands in the sun Spain reigns over two significant island groups: the Balearics off the eastern coast are actually a continuation... 8 Living culture: the details of modern spain widely from region to region Some of the regions are divided into provinces, of which Spain has 50 in total Ceuta and Melilla, two tiny fenced off patches of Spain clinging defiantly to the otherwise Moroccan coast of Africa, carry the status of autonomous cities Vital statistics Area 504,000 sq km (190,000 sq miles) (around double the size of the UK) Population . Living culture: the details of modern spain Northern Spain The stripe of northern Spain running from the border with Portugal to the edge of the Pyrenees was once largely unknown outside the country,. Spanish lust for life. Speak the Culture books give you the keys to a nation’s culture Investigating the people, the way they live and their creative heroes, the series unlocks the passions and habits. drink 8. Living culture: the details of modern spain 1.1.1 The lie of the land the 400km stretch of the Pyrenees and, at greatest height, in the snow-capped Sierra Nevada, part of the Cordillera