The city walls at sunset

Girona's wall was built on Roman foundations, extended in the Middle Ages, and reopened as a walkway in the last century. It runs along the high eastern side of the old town, and you can walk most of it: parapets, stairs, and square towers you climb for a view over the cathedral, the tiled roofs, the Onyar valley and the Gavarres hills beyond.

What makes it good for photography is the layering. The walkway is narrow enough to isolate two people against sky, the towers give you height without a ticket, and the stairs give diagonals — one of the few places where you can put a subject on a staircase and still have a horizon behind them.

Sunset is the hour: the walk faces the town, so the low light comes from behind the cathedral and rims the roofline. Twenty minutes before, the stone itself goes warm. Sunrise gives the opposite — cold blue stone and a lit valley — and there is nobody at all up there.

The wall is free but closes around dusk, so check the seasonal hours, because being locked out on the wrong side is a real possibility. There are a lot of steps and some sections have low parapets and no railing: sensible shoes, and keep small children close. The Jardins dels Alemanys, ruined gardens tucked under the wall, are a two-minute detour and a completely different, greener set.