What are Traveler Calls? Destiny calls? The call of life? From the trip? This new section of videos starring names from the world of culture (music, cinema, gastronomy, literature...) brings us voices with a lot to say, that guide us through very special corners, different places that embody their experiences and invite us to discover them.
In the current scenario, the photographer and filmmaker Jerónimo Álvarez pays tribute to the unbreakable spirit that has kept us united as a society, either through traditional calls, video calls, audios...
The obligation to keep our distance has not prevented us in recent years from pursuing a connection: between us and with destiny. Thus, Álvarez goes through his most personal scenarios with different characters, while narrate in off their reflections and emotions about the space they describe.
On this occasion, the actor Alfonso Bassave (Madrid, 1979) takes us to the Royal Site of La Granja de San Ildefonso, traditionally known as La Granja. The municipality, which has been declared a Historic Monumental Site, It belongs to the province of Segovia, in Castilla y León.
Alfonso Bassave is happy in La Granja (Segovia), where he connects with nature.
In these lares of kings - not in vain it was the summer residence of the Spanish monarchs and there is the Royal Palace–, the protagonist of series such as Hispania, Gran Hotel or the acclaimed Riot Police feels at home.
“I am a visitor, a Madrilenian with a house there, but I do consider it my people”, tells us the actor, whom we also know from the wonderful film May God forgive us, by Rodrigo Sorogoyen.
Alfonso was not born nor does he have a family there, but he goes with his loved ones since he was a child. "Memory once my father took me and my best friend, when we were eight years old. I was going down the Siete Revueltas (this is how the regional road is known), we we let ourselves fall in the curves to the sides, dying of laughter”.
"Time that I have spent next to that fireplace, watching the fire, listening to music, sharing moments with friends or partner... Listening to opera with my father. It's a magical place for me." the interpreter tells us about his family home.
"For me, getting to nature is getting in touch with what is important in life," he says. If one takes risks and dares to go, literally and metaphorically, down paths that he does not know, that is rewarded." Of course, there are paradises to do it, in the many hiking trails offered by the Sierra de Guadarrama.
And this is, as Alfonso suggests, the best time of year to do it. “If I think of a season of the year in La Granja... it would be autumn. The fireplace, the beans, the horseback rides. It gets dark, you go home and have a chocolate with friends. The trees make it look spectacular.”
The actor, a big fan of westerns since his father instilled in him a love for cinema, has also been riding horses at La Granja since he was a teenager. “I dreamed of being an actor because I saw Clint Eastwood”, he confesses he.
To visit this place, where the famous Royal Glass Factory and a National Parador (in the Casa de Infantes, founded in 2007) are located, you must wear comfortable shoes. "In La Granja you have to walk, get lost, and I'm a lot of that, to try places, take a car or start walking”.
Alfonso feels that when he walks by Valsain meadow or the gardens are releasing ballast. “There, in a very short time, I am where I want to be on a personal and emotional level,” he adds. “I remember all my life walking through those gardens and I remember who I was at each moment”, he comments on these gardens, "an incredible place, one of those places where that human intervention is more successful".