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attention to his small restaurant in the mountains. The timing is
no coincidence. “Before then, we didn’t think Asturias had much
to offer the world,” explains Esther Manzano, Nacho’s sister, who
has her own restaurant, La Salgar, in the center of Gijón. “We
didn’t believe in ourselves. We didn’t have fantastic weather.
We were very hard to get to—a long drive from anywhere, there
were no flights. We just assumed nobody would want to come.”
Then two things happened: Europe’s new bargain airlines
began flying intrepid tourists here in the late 1990s; and Woody
Allen’s 2008 film Vicky Cristina Barcelona sent its characters to
Oviedo for a weekend, causing filmgoers around the world to turn
to each other in surprise. Why would anyone leave Barcelona to
visit ... Asturias? “Woody Allen told the world we exist,” Esther says.
“He opened the world’s eyes, but he also opened our eyes.” A
statue of the controversial writer-director stands off Calle Uria.
Tourism has helped raise the standard of living in Asturias,
giving restaurants like those run by Nacho and Esther Manzano a
Asturias calls itself the país de quesos (land of cheese) due to the dozens
of artisanal varieties it produces, including origin-protected Cabrales.
The tangy blue cheese is traditionally blended with milk from goats (left,
on the mountain slopes near Sotres) and aged in limestone caves (above).