Carthage vs Rome

Cartagena was hard fought by the Romans during their quest to control the Iberian Peninsula during the Second Punic War. Founded by Hasdrubal after Carthage's defeat in Sicily in the First Punic War, the Romans faced Hannibal himself and almost total defeat before their semi-miraculous comeback during the Roman siege of Cartagena.

Cartagena, then a peninsula, was hemmed between the best natural port in the western Mediterranean and a tidal lagoon to its north. The Romans attacked the two main city walls while blockading the port with a fleet of longships. The Punic walls of Carthago Nova proved too high and well-defended to attack frontally. Using intelligence from fishermen, the Romans waited for low tide and sent 500 men wading through the lagoon to attack the Carthaginians from the north, where they weren't expected. Thus, Carthage's presence in Iberia ended forever.

By the time of Augustus, Carthago Nova was a prosperous city that helped project Roman power and control over the Western Mediterranean and all of Hispania. The town boasted marvelous theatres adorned with the finest marble imported from Rome. Such rich Roman presence is still here, sometimes just beneath one's feet, as in the remains of luxurious Roman villas, and sometimes soaring way above, as in the spectacular Roman Theatre, the remains of the Roman arena, and the hilltop forts and temples that dot the city.

The Romans Were Here, But Did You Know It?

I'm embarrassed by how often I'd driven between Barcelona and Valencia without knowing anything about the towns in between, never mind the Romans, until a chance pit stop in Tarragona years ago opened my eyes to one of Spain's most spectacular Roman cities.

Spain's travel marketing focuses heavily on clichés: Beaches, sangria, paella, churches, cathedrals, museums, and castles, but rarely Roman ruins. Therefore, few Americans realize Spain is a Roman history treasure trove.

That's why we decided to return to Tarragona this summer to revisit its extraordinary Roman legacy. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site due to its abundance of Roman archaeological sites, some even beneath a shopping mall!

The Authentic Valencia Paella

Valencia's history is written on the landscape surrounding L'Albufera. Local fishermen have worked these waters since at least the 1200s, and likely long before that. Rows of orange groves line the edges of the lagoon, watched over by a chain of Moorish castles dotting the hills along its length.

It was the Moors who introduced rice to L'Albufera. They named it al-buhayra, or inland sea, and that's exactly what it looks like—sometimes water, sometimes, like today, a shimmering field of rice, always reminiscent of a massive inland sea. Only a thin strip of dunes separates the lagoon from the Mediterranean.

I peer closer at the rice heads stretching out before me. Green pearls crown the stems, shaking like vegetable maracas in the wind. This is bomba rice—the best and only official rice for the most Valencian of dishes: Paella.

You might think you know Paella. Perhaps you've seen or even tasted the impostors sold outside Spain—Paella pizza, for instance. But in Valencia, only the version born in the rice fields of L'Albufera can claim the title of authentic Valencian Paella.