These are heady times for the people of Catalan.

That's a feisty independent-minded nation without a state, as people there like to say, in northeast Spain.

And its capital, Barcelona, is one of Europe's trendiest destinations.

Hi, I'm Rick Steeves.

Today on Travel with Rick Steeves, two expert guides to Barcelona

introduce us to the site's end character of Spain's most cosmopolitan city.

Moncerar is much more than a religious symbol.

Monsieurad is actually a symbol of national pride.

Spaniard Federico Garcia Barroso is joined by Susanna Pericini,

an Italian who also made Spain her home.

Their enthusiasm for Barcelona matches this city's flamboyant flare.

We'll also visit Rome to admire Michelangelo's astonishing Sistinee chapel. Angela Nickerson joins us later in the hour to help us imagine Michelangelo's Rome back in Renaissance times.

Had Michelangelo lived somewhere else in Europe at the time,

he might have ended up being a Lutheran.

From today's dynamic Barcelona to the Rome of Michelangelo,

it's all just ahead on travel with Rick Steeves.

I'm Rick Steeves, and we're getting an inside look at one of Europe's most effervescent cities,

Barcelona today on Travel with Rick Steeves.

And later in the hour we'll switch from surreal modernism to the more classical triumphs of Michelangelo in Rome. Rome may be the

eternal city, but it was shaped in part by a mortal from Tuscany. Viva to Spania. Viva to Spanya, that's what the Spanish just love to say, But when you're in the northeast corner of Spain, people say something entirely different.

Viska Catalunya. That's the region that is an up-and-coming region.

It's one of the most vibrant places along the Mediterranean

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