Tarraco was Rome's first permanent foothold in Spain. The Scipio brothers landed on this coast in 218 BC to cut Carthaginian supply lines and built a fortified base on the rock above the harbour, whose huge stone walls, in part from that early period, still stand along the edge of the upper town. Under Augustus the city became the capital of the largest Roman province in Spain, Hispania Tarraconensis, and the emperor himself lived here for a time in 26 and 25 BC, ruling the empire from a Spanish town while he recovered his health and led a campaign in the north.
The remains are spread through the modern city. The amphitheatre sits on a slope above the sea, with the waves beyond the arena, and was the scene of games and executions, among them, according to tradition, the burning of the bishop Fructuosus in the third century. The long hippodrome of the circus lies under the old town, with its vaults used as foundations for houses, while the forum and the provincial forum, the imperial cult area, occupy the heights. Just outside the city, an aqueduct, the Pont del Diable, strides across a valley on two tiers of arches. UNESCO listed the Archaeological Ensemble of Tarraco in 2000.
Tarragona today is a lively port city of some hundred and forty thousand people, with a beach, a cathedral, a pretty old quarter and a calm Mediterranean air. It is also the heart of the Catalan tradition of building human towers, the castells, which are performed on feast days in the squares and are well worth watching. Fuel, food and beds are easy to find, and in the seafood restaurants of the Serrallo fishing quarter you can eat the catch of the day with local wine from the Priorat and Penedès.
The coast road from Barcelona is fast and busy, but the inland roads through the vineyards and low hills, such as those toward the Prades mountains, are twistier and quieter. The old town is hilly and partly pedestrian, so leave the bike in a garage and walk. Summer is hot, humid and crowded, and the best months are April, May, October and early November.
The ride links the Roman city to Gaudí's crypt at the Colònia Güell, with a wide gap in time between them.