This local’s guide to Barcelona introduces you to the Barcelona that locals call home, rather than the more obvious tourist sites. I hope it inspires you when planning your next trip to Barcelona.

In the summer months in Barcelona, a message is sprayed in English onto walls and floors next to metro stations and tourist sites. In recent years it has become harder to miss. “Tourist go home”

You know it’s a bank holiday in Spain when you step out of your flat and into the beginning of a zombie film. There are no cars on the streets. Shops have the shutters down. Where is everybody?

When I lived in London, I often felt like a tourist in my own city. A particularly bad day at work could be salvaged if, when walking home, I looked up and caught sight of St Paul’s Cathedral in just the right kind of light.