Trevor Huxham

In late October, I caught one of the last Ryanair flights of the season from Santiago de Compostela (where I’m living now) down to Sevilla , which is the capital of Andalucía—the southernmost region of Spain and my former home for a year. The last time I had been in the south was the early morning of June 1st, on my way north and west to begin the Camino de Santiago before heading back home to America. Thankfully, I was able to make my dream of returning to Andalucía come true this fall by flying down to Sevilla, where I got to hang out with Reina, one of my good American friends from Úbeda who is now living there. Carmona panorama While I was in town, she and I took a fun daytrip to Carmona, a small pueblo  (village) about half an hour outside the city. When I first visited Sevilla back in April, my bus there stopped at Carmona’s bus station, and I was immediately hooked: a lovely, whitewashed village crowned with a huge, ancient stone castle. There was no question—I...

I finally had the chance to visit Sevilla, the capital of Spain’s southern Andalucía region, in April of this year, and I don’t think I could have arrived at a better time: the springtime weather had made the city warm but not a frying pan, the long winter rain had finally let up, and a fragrant, floral air had invaded the streets and plazas. Torre del Oro (foreground) and the Giralda (background) at the blue hour Sevilla (pronounced “say-VEE-yah” [seˈβi.ʝa]) began as the Roman city of Hispalis , which served as a judicial capital within the province of Baetica. Over the centuries it continued to grow, and was an important city during Moorish times. When Columbus “discovered” the Americas, Sevilla discovered a monopoly on trade between Spain and the New World and subsequently became one of the richest cities in the world. The silting of the Guadalquivir River, however, effectively closed off its ports and pushed the center of trade south to Cádiz on the coast, and Sev...