Views of the cathedral from Las Setas de Sevilla, a project by the architect Jürgen Mayer known as Metropol Parasol.
Seville is a fascinating city, a restless capital that does not stop giving us new places that shake the daily life of their own day, but also our sporadic visits, which end up becoming highly repetitive. Because Seville, ladies and gentlemen, is addictive and never disappoints. Much less in spring.
When you think you know its most famous bars, the definitive walk among orange trees or the (pen) last place in fashion, she arrives with her grace, her power and her novelties and gives us another new lesson (of sevillanas): one pass and one lap in the first and, without realizing it, we are of paseíllo doing another confrontation to the Guadalquivir on the fourth (visit).
In spring you can walk around the city because it's not too hot yet.
IN THE TABLE
The seasonal product has been installed in Sevillian restaurants for a long time: meat from the dehesas, fish from the estuaries, seafood from the markets and vegetables from the orchards of the Guadalquivir valley. However, it is now that we are getting the taste of having it prepared for us in an alternative way.
This is the case of the De la O restaurant, whose owner and head chef, Manuel Llerena, uses the notions learned in his Architecture degree to ‘draw’ plates as round as the O which gives its name to this place located next to the historic riverbed of the Guadalquivir, away from the crowds, but one step away from the alleys of Triana.
you will go for his truffled rice with mushrooms, mushrooms and asparagus, the one that the unconditional ones do not allow him to take off the menu, and Manuel will surprise you with some grilled sea bass roe or with grilled Almadraba tuna ribs only suitable for seasoned gourmets.
The return to the kitchen of origin of the presumed De la O is noticeable even in the small details, such as her initiative to rescuing olives from Andalusian mills as a significant ingredient in creative dishes, since, as the chef reminds us, they have been losing gastronomic value as they are a product given as an appetizer. You'll understand once you try the olive ice cream that accompanies, for example, cold soups like white garlic.
Terrace of the La O restaurant, next to the historic riverbed of the Guadarquivir.
Not one, but 4 Souls are the ones that make up this avant-garde restaurant in which the audacious chefs Alberto Nieto and Oliver Romero, together with the entrepreneurs Diego Miranda and Fran Nieto, have achieved capture the immaterial essence of the traditional flavors of the south to give it a more daring and contemporary form in tapas and dishes such as pringá croquettes with a veil of Iberian bacon, glazed octopus with roasted endives and pickle vinaigrette or the sticky rice of blue duck.
Right next to Plaza Nueva, at 16 Méndez Núñez street, don't be fooled by its secluded entrance, the interior of 4 Almas is as large, modern and revolutionary as its stew and market kitchen updated.
Glazed octopus with roasted endives and pickle vinaigrette at the 4 Almas restaurant in Seville.
IN THE CUP
Seville does not lack tapas bars or terraces for the afternoon, but he needed one of those cocktail bars where they know (and make you notice) the difference between shaking, straining and stirring. That the "mixed, not shaken" thing is already a thing of other times and another type of public.
In Damn Cocktail Bar, Pepe Hidalgo, an experienced bartender that has passed through the cocktail shakers of places as distinguished as the Alfonso XIII hotel, has been in charge of creating a cocktail menu as complete as it is complex to give a twist to Sevillian afternoons.
Among his creations you will find from an invigorating Penicillin, based on whisky, ginger, honey and lemon, to a refreshing Free Unicorn (vodka, ginger, passion fruit, cassis, lime and soda) for those who like sweeter mixtures.
Do we like your mixology? Of course, but also the modern decoration of this new place on Calle Boteros whose huge windows will make you feel like you're inside a Hopper painting, although in this case with views of the nearby Plaza de la Alfalfa.
Blanca Paloma, a Paloma cocktail with an Andalusian touch at Maldito Cocktail Bar.
IN THE BED
Although spring is not being as flowery and beautiful as Sevillian hotels would like (many are still closed due to health restrictions), the Barceló group has not only maintained its presence in the city with offers for specific dates at your five-star Barceló Sevilla Renacimiento, but has wanted to enhance it even more with the recent opening of its second establishment in the Andalusian capital, which is called Occidental Sevilla Viapol.
Located a few minutes from Santa Justa, in front of the San Bernardo station, in the Nervión neighbourhood, this four-star now offers, after its comprehensive reform, a pleasant outdoor terrace with a swimming pool and almost a hundred rooms decorated in neutral and pastel tones that favor rest even more.
In addition, its concept restaurant Arrozante, advised by rice masters Carlos Otaola and José Luis Chaparro, has made a name for itself in a short time among the best restaurants in Seville where you can try a authentic signature rice (or paella).
One of the rooms in the new Occidental Sevilla Viapol hotel.
IN THE SKY
Those of us who are not from the south find it hard to understand that, from the climatic Ecuador that is Despeñaperros down, spring is a better time than summer to enjoy outdoor activities. Of course, once we suffered in our own flesh (and never better said) the extreme Andalusian heat of the summer months, we tried focus our visits on those dates when it is possible for us to walk down the street without getting burned.
Not to mention getting on the terrace of a building. Reason why, if you want to enjoy any of the experiences that include access to the privileged rooftop pool of AIRE Ancient Baths Sevilla, It is better that you make your reservation as soon as possible. So the time you spend contemplating the Sevillian rooftops and the Giralda from the water it will be much more relaxing and less suffocating.
Rooftop swimming pool of the AIRE Ancient Baths Seville.
In a Mudejar-style house-palace with almost five centuries of history, in the narrow neighborhood of Santa Cruz, these bathrooms have just released two limited edition sensation trips (Ode to the Senses and Ode to Vitality) within its protocol An Ottoman Tale.
A safe bet is always the wine bath –with antioxidant properties of the red grape from Ribera del Duero– of his The Wine Bath Experience. I could tell you that the best thing about this experience is being there, submerged in an old marble well from the 17th century of Venetian origin , with a glass of wine in hand, but I would be lying: it is the cranial massage that takes the cake (or rather it should be the palm of the specialist's hand that takes the laurels).
An Islamic bath from the 12th century has been found in the Giralda bar in Seville.
IN THE BOWELS
I am not going to talk here about how Seville gets into your entrails and makes you unable to imagine a better destination to spend your leisure time and vacations, but rather I am going to refer to its historical entrails, those that appear as soon as you scratch the surface a little. Attention to the cheers from the facades of the Archivo de Indias and the cathedral complex! No, they are not graffiti or acts of vandalism, they are the university academic successes of other times embodied in stone like the Romans did.
The (pen)last to be discovered? A 12th-century Almohad hammam in the Giralda bar , crowned by starry, polylobed and octagonal lights and totally covered with wall paintings which, in some cases, represent water and Paradise.
Because in this city in which past and present coexist as in few places in the world surprises, whether new or ancient, are always yet to come. You just have to follow your instinct and come back again and again to be the first to find out and thus throw the (pen) last dance next to the Guadalquivir.