The Matarraña, in the far east of Teruel province, is often called the Tuscany of Aragon, and for once the comparison holds. Stone villages crown hilltops above olive groves and vineyards, rivers run clear through limestone gorges, and the light in the evening is honey-coloured. Valmayor is a ravine in the hills here, between Valderrobres, Fuentespalda and the Catalan border, and its shelters hold prehistoric paintings, part of the UNESCO-listed Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin. As elsewhere, they are protected, and visits are best arranged through local tourist offices.
Valderrobres, a dozen kilometres away, is the obvious base, a village of two thousand people with a medieval bridge over the Matarraña river, a Gothic castle and church crowning the hill above, and narrow lanes winding between them. It is one of the most photographed villages in Aragon, and rightly so. The area is popular with walkers, cyclists and climbers, who come for the gorges and the Els Ports massif to the south, where Iberian ibex graze on ledges above the river at Beceite.
The riding is superb. Narrow roads twist through the hills between villages like Beceite, Cretas, Calaceite and Fuentespalda, with constantly changing views, very little traffic outside holidays, and surfaces that are mostly good. Further south, the Els Ports massif offers more dramatic mountain roads, and east, across the border into Catalonia, the Terra Alta wine region and the Ebro valley around Tortosa open up.
Services are limited in the smaller villages, so plan fuel carefully; Valderrobres has a station, and Alcañiz and Tortosa are the nearest larger towns. The local food is hearty and full of flavour: Teruel ham, olive oil from the Matarraña's own designation, lamb, and the local almonds. Peaches from Calanda, just to the west, are bagged on the tree to protect them and sold in September with their own designation of origin. Spring and autumn are the best times, when the weather is mild, the light clear and the hills fragrant with rosemary.