If I didn't live in Barcelona, I would be in love with it. "Barcelona combines everything that is most charming about Mediterranean cities --- a relaxed pace, months of endless sunshine, unbeatable food--- with the cultural and design clout of almost any city in the cold north", writes Telegraph expert Sally Davies, and it is entirely understandable. I imagine her readers, so British, fed up with chaining rainy days and insipid gastronomy and eager to voluptuously sink their feet, accustomed to treading damp and sad carpets, into the warm sand of Barceloneta's beaches. Barcelona is no longer that hidden gem that the world discovered thirty years ago with the Olympic Games, but one of the most recognized tourist destinations on the planet. One of those mainstream paradises that tens of millions of people around the world dream of escaping to, to try and make their lives a little brighter.
The Barcelona of 2022 has little to do with that gray city disfigured by the years of developmentalism that, until it began to be aware of its attractions or rediscover them (Gaudí, beach...) ---we are talking about the nineties of the 20th century--- looked at the great European capitals a bit like Alfredo Landa looked at Swedish women, with a mixture of desire and complex. Barcelona 92 meant a sensational injection of money to carry out works and bring the city up to date, but, above all, it was a shot of self-esteem. Instead of staying only on the coast, tourists began to come en masse to Barcelona and then returned amazed to their countries. They told their brothers-in-law, and the following year they also showed up here. Fiction also helped create a certain image of Barcelona as a city of joie de vivre: Cédric Klapisch's L'Auberge espagnole proclaimed to the four winds that Barcelona was fantastic for coming to do an Erasmus (party, paellas, sex, and sangria) and, with Vicky Cristina Barcelona ---a sponsored report opportunely subsidized by our administrations---, that when you're around thirty you can also have a blast in the Catalan capital.
For all these reasons, it should not be surprising at all that the Telegraph has just chosen Barcelona as the best city in the world. Yes, our beloved Barcelona tops the ranking prepared by Telegraph Travel from a selection of 50 cities around the planet. Barcelona obtains 588 points, followed by Sydney (Australia) with 556 and Cape Town (South Africa) with 549. To sweeten the victory: Madrid is relegated to sixteenth position. As socialist Jaume Collboni said on Twitter: "Madrid 'rocks', yes, but Barcelona, best city in the world." Suck on that!, I add that, of course.
Let's imagine that a certain Miquel Pujol —not a real person but an archetype, in fact, if instead of being from Barcelona he were American we would call him John Doe— hears on the car radio the news of Barcelona's election as the best city in the world. He immediately gets so emotional that tears well up in his eyes because, although he has lived in Mataró since a vulture fund bought the Eixample building where he lived to make high-end tourist apartments and it was impossible for him to find a reasonable rent, he feels very much from Barcelona. Miquel Pujol every morning waits in a long queue to enter the city through the Glòries tunnel and takes advantage of the traffic jams to drink a coffee he brings from home in a thermos. He used to drink it in the bar next to the office, but since a foodie with many followers on social media chose it as the best place in the city for brunch, phenomenal queues of tourists form at its doors and, furthermore, prices have doubled. While patiently waiting to enter the best city in the world, Miquel Pujol thinks that he will suggest to his partner that they go for a walk around the center on Saturday now that everything is open again and there is a great atmosphere. He knows she likes to look at the shop windows on Paseo de Gràcia. They will have dinner at home, if at all.
Thinking of people like Miquel Pujol, I have taken the trouble to go to the source to find out what methodology the Telegraph followed to choose Barcelona as the best city on the planet. I have gone to read the fine print of the matter, so to speak. To begin with, the Telegraph already warns that they have prepared their ranking from the perspective of the tourist and not based on the comfort of the Miquels Pujols.
So, what did the Telegraph take into account to decide that Barcelona is the best city in the world?
Come and see:
- Number of Unesco World Heritage sites
- Number of Michelin-starred restaurants per capita
- Distance from the city center to the nearest airport
- Number of five-star hotels per capita
- Number of museums and galleries listed on TripAdvisor
- Annual hours of sunshine
- Beach
- Shared bicycle or scooter system
- Symphony orchestra
My intention with all of this is not to question Barcelona's selection as the best city in the world. Nor is it to deny that this is good news for the city. In fact, I'm a bit like Miquel Pujol ---I suppose like all Barcelona residents who feel the colors--- and, personally, I'm happy about its selection. What I demand from whoever is responsible is that, first of all, they work so that those of us who live in Barcelona can also continue to be in love with it, since, some days, ours seems like an impossible love.