Calaceite is the kind of village that makes you slow down without being asked: honey-coloured stone, arcaded squares, a big baroque church and grand old houses with carved doorways, all perched on a ridge in the Matarraña, the corner of Teruel where Aragón meets Catalonia and Valencia. A few kilometres from it lies the Cueva de Mas del Abogat, one of the painted rock shelters that belong to the UNESCO listing of prehistoric art in the Mediterranean Basin of the Iberian Peninsula. As with its sisters across eastern Spain, the paintings are small and often hard to read; the setting is what you take away.
People have lived on these hills for a very long time. Just outside Calaceite is the Iberian settlement of San Antonio, a hilltop town from the centuries before the Romans, with foundations of houses and walls you can walk among. Later came Muslim rule, then the Christian repopulation, then centuries of olive oil, wine and wheat. Today the area is often called the Tuscany of Aragón, a nickname that fits the rolling olive groves, almond trees and stone farmhouses, and many Catalan and foreign visitors have restored old houses here.
The riding is relaxed and very rewarding. Roads between Calaceite, Valdeltormo, Mazaleón and Valderrobres wind gently through farmland and over low ridges, with a few properly tight stretches where the land breaks into ravines. Traffic is light, apart from the occasional farm vehicle. The Ports de Beseit massif to the south offers more dramatic climbs if you want them. Spring blossom and autumn harvest are lovely; summer is hot and dry, with the cicadas drowning out the engine.
For services, think ahead. Calaceite has bars and places to eat, but the reliable choice for fuel and everything else is Alcañiz, about twenty-seven kilometres away, a town of sixteen thousand with a castle of the Order of Calatrava looking down on it. Bikers know Alcañiz for another reason: the MotorLand Aragón circuit just outside town, which hosts major motorcycle racing. Try the local olive oil, which is excellent, the cured ham from Teruel and, if you are lucky, a peach from Calanda in late summer.