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 Steve's two expert guides to Barcelona

introduce us to the sites and character

of Spain's most cosmopolitan city.

The Bocaria, which is one of the best markets that I know in Spain, really.

Spaniard Federico Garcia Barroso is joined by Susanna Perocini, an Italian who also made Spain her home. Their enthusiasm for Barcelona matches. of

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 Sistine 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 efferves

in 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 Espana, that's what the Spanish just love to say.

But when you're in the northeast corner of Spain,

...