Its tapestry of cycle paths means the best way to travel around is on two wheels, while its restaurants and markets are filled with sun-ripened produce from farms that ring the city and sunny weekends are spent at the beach.
And the best way to move between both areas is via the Turia Gardens, a five-mile-long park that unfurls along what was the Turia River before it was diverted out of the city following a deadly flood in But all that ground to a halt when floods hit Valencia once again on the night of October 29 last year.
True to its village-like atmosphere, the first help on the ground was from locals. Farmers who had lost everything used their tractors to help clear roads, and volunteers cleaned streets and houses armed with little more than wellies and a broom. Thanks to the rerouted Turia River, the centre of Valencia remained untouched by the devastation, but over the following weeks hotel bookings plummeted as worried travellers cancelled their trips. Tourism is still down 18 per cent.
Valencia is open for business, however, and in a city where hotels and restaurants still buy their ingredients from nearby farms and producers, the money you spend can have a positive effect.
With about days of sunshine a year, Valencia glows with Mediterranean warmth even in the winter months β last weekend I was enjoying alfresco lunches with friends. Stay in the old town, where the sherbet-lemon Palacio Vallier offers views of the cathedral from the rooftop terrace. Many believe that the simple agate cup in a glittering gold reliquary, tucked in its own chapel, is the true Holy Grail. And is a jubilee year, a special celebration that occurs every five years during which visiting pilgrims can receive plenary indulgence the removal of time spent in purgatory.
