How to buy a typical souvenir in Barcelona? Everyone wants to go back home with a typical souvenir from the place he/she has visited. There are hundreds of souvenir shops along La Rambla in Barcelona selling Mexican hats, bullfighting gifts, castanets, cheesy fans and flamenco stuff. Are they typical items from Catalonia? Of course, they are not but tourists keep buying them. I still wonder why the tourists buy Mexican hats in Barcelona as souvenirs if they are Mexican. As for bulls, Barcelona has been for so long against bullfighting. In fact, despite the fact the city boasts two impressive arenas, no more corridas have taken place in Barcelona since 2011, when the Catalan Government banned them.
Here you have a list of traditional Catalan items you can find in Barcelona:
1) DRINKS
a) Wine (Priorat D.O. / Priorat D.O / Costers del Segre D.O)
b) Cava. It’s a sparkling local wine similar to champagne. It can be white or rosé. Both are delicious. They are becoming widely known around the world thanks to exports.
c) Anís del mono. It’s an anise-based spirit produced in Badalona, a town next to Barcelona.
2) FOOD
a) Cold meat /Charcuterie:
Fuet. It’s like thin salami. Delicious cured pork sausage to eat as a tapa. Bull blanc, bull negre, butifarra negre, butifarra blanca. White or black sausages.
b) Carquinyolis. Artisan crunchy almond biscuits.
3) CLOTHES
a) Barretina. Old traditional Catalan hat.
d) Espadrilles. Flat esparto grass sandals.
e) Barça T-shirt.
f) La Senyera. Catalan national flag.
OTHERS
g) Caganer. Translated into English would be the shitter. It’s a figure that appears in the nativity scene pooping behind some bushes.
h) Porró. Traditional Catalan glass pitcher to drink.
i) Donkey sticker for your car. Whereas the symbol in Spain is the bull, here in Catalonia is the donkey. You’ll notice there are some drivers who have stuck a donkey or a bull at the back of their car. It’s a way to say: Hey, I am Catalan and I don’t identify myself with the Spanish bull or Hey, I’m Spanish and I am very proud of it.
