Catalonia

The roads are in good condition, the food is fantastic and quite different from traditional Spanish food, accommodations are sparse but adequate and shopping availability is plentiful. If you imagine that you're going to come across donkey carts, packs of stray dogs, and rattletrap buses you’d be terribly mistaken and seriously out of touch.

What you will find, are some seriously modern highways, stunning mountainous scenery, a rich history dating back to prehistoric times, many inhabited buildings that are more than 1,000 years old, and hundreds of castles.

You can see a list here (PDF). The list is probably not 100% accurate, and it does not include fortified cities such as Solsona. But I am posting it anyway just to give an idea of the scope of historic sites, some still inhabited.

To visit inland Catalonia you will require a little bit of planning, a car, a GPS and more than a passing knowledge of Spanish, even that might not be enough as many people in Catalonia only speak Catalan. The region is quite safe and the citizens friendly though some are reserved.