GOC's visitors to the gay capital of Spain didn't just walk, they took in some art as well. The town punches well above its weight in museum and gallery terms, and on a special guided tour we saw three of them, in a cluster behind the church of St Bartholomew.

Sitges' reputation for Bohemianism stems partly from the arrival of a significant colony of artists towards the end of the 19th century. Chief amongst them was Santiago Rusiñol who first took the recently built train line from Barcelona in 1891. He was an avid collector, a poet and a musician as well as a painter, and came to be adopted as an honorary son of the town. He collected works by El Greco, by the young Picasso and many more. To house his collection he built a grand 'Modernista' house called Cau Ferrat complete with a hugely impressive medieval Great Hall which has walls of the deepest blue. In it his fellow artists gathered to admire a remarkable collection of paintings, sculpture, glass and ironwork, including a magnificent pair of knockers to which two people owed their lives as they clung to them in a flood.

Next door is the Maricel Museum, and a Palace with the same name to which it is connected by an aerial passageway. These buildings are a Disneyesque fantasy of medieval stone and tilework assembled by an American named Charles Deering who arrived in the town in grand style in an open top car around 1910. He attempted to buy Rusiñol's own collection, but was firmly told the artist's precious memories were not for sale.

Other collections of early religious art were added and we enjoyed impressive views over the town from the Palace's beautiful rooftop.