The debate is harsh and emotional, showing that for all the changes Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has introduced with his trailblazing social agenda since taking power in 2004, abortion remains sensitive in a country where most people call themselves Catholic, even if few churches are full on Sundays.

Liberalizing teen abortion is part of a broader change proposed for Spain’s abortion law, the main thrust of which is to allow the procedure with no restrictions up to 14 weeks into a pregnancy.

The government gave the bill preliminary approval in May and Parliament is expected to take it up in the fall. Zapatero probably has the votes to get it passed. However, the outcry over teenagers may force him to backtrack.

Under the current law, Spanish women can in theory go to jail for getting an abortion outside certain strict limits — up to week 12 in case of rape and week 22 if the fetus is malformed. But abortion is in effect widely available because women can assert mental distress as sole grounds for having an abortion, regardless of how late the pregnancy is.

Now Zapatero is seeking to deepen his mark on Spanish society. What he’s proposing wipes away the threat of imprisonment and declares abortion to be a woman’s right.

“That is a qualitative change in Spanish culture and politics,” said Javier del Rey, a professor of political communications at Complutense University in Madrid. “Something that had been a crime is transformed into a right.”

Britain, France and Germany already allow minors to get abortions without parental permission. But here it’s the issue that is dominating the debate.

The conservative opposition Popular Party asks why a girl who cannot legally buy alcohol can have an abortion without asking her parents. “The inconsistency is crushing,” lawmaker Sandra Moneo wrote in the newspaper El Pais.

“No father or mother can understand the idea of a minor going through that trauma without the advice, support and opinion of her parents,” Moneo said.

Zapatero’s camp counters by noting that 16-year-old Spaniards can choose to have open-heart surgery or chemotherapy without parental consent, but not an abortion.

Tempers have flared on both sides. Conservatives were enraged when Bibiana Aido, the minister of equality, suggested abortion was no bigger an issue than breast enlargement.

The Spanish Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has arrived in L’Aquila in Italy to take part in a meeting of the G-8.
He had the chance for a brief greeting with Barack Obama whom he had last met in Istanbul on April 6 at a meeting of the alliance of civilisations.

Both men were smiling for the photographers on Thursday ahead of the G-8 family photo and the work at the meeting continues today, Friday, with a discussion on food safety which will be opened by Zapatero and the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon.

Non-governmental organisations are currently claiming that only Spain and the United States are taking their obligations to the developing world seriously, and Zapatero says he will use today’s meeting to call for a greater effort against hunger and poverty, and an effort to bring agricultural and food self-sufficiency to the poorest nations.

The main sight is the church of Nuestra Señora de la Consolación at the southern end of town, an outstanding example of andaluz “mix and match” architecture - begun in the fourteenth century, continued with some nice Renaissance touches and finally completed in the eighteenth century.

There are also some fine spots within easy wandering distance of the town: a walk of just 5km will take you east to the Ermita del Monte , a little eighteenth-century church on a wooded hill above the Rivera de Huesna.

A rather sleepy tourist office at Paseo del Moro 2 (Mon-Fri 9.30am-2pm & 5-7pm; tel 954 883 562) has information on the region but not a town map; this is available from the ayuntamiento (same hours) a five-minute walk away at Plaza Dr. Narcea 1. Among a number of hostales in Cazalla the best is perhaps La Milagrosa , c/Llana 29, on the main street (tel 954 884 260; ¬18-27). There are also several upmarket hotels, including the charming Posada del Moro , c/Paseo del Moro s/n (tel 954 884 326, fax 954 884 858; ¬36-48), with its own good restaurant and delightful rooms overlooking a garden and pool. There are numerous bars around the centre of town and plenty of places to eat - Bar Gonzalo , c/Caridad 3, in the centre, serves a good-value menú , and the casino on the central La Plazuela serves simple and hearty meals. The casino is essentially a place to drink and relax - quieter and more comfortable than most of the bars - and serves as a kind of club, with locals paying a nominal monthly membership charge. Most towns of Cazalla’s size have one, and tourists and visitors are always welcome to use the facilities free of charge - worth doing since the membership rule means everybody drinks at reduced prices.

Cazalla is well served by public transport, with daily buses connecting it with Sevilla. Buses also run at 7am and 11.45am to the Estación de Cazalla y Constantina, twenty minutes to the east, from where there are three or four trains a day northwest to Zafra and Extremadura, and a similar number that follow the river down towards El Pedroso and ultimately Sevilla. If you’re making for El Pedroso, though, you might consider walking from the station - a lovely route, with great river swimming and a fabulous variety of valley flora and fauna; it takes about five hours. A kilometre south of the station there’s also an excellent place to stay, the Molino del Corcho with rooms and food (tel 955 954 249; ¬18-27).

The Iglesia de San Pedro (Tues-Sat 9.30am-2.30pm; ¬1.20) is a good place to start exploring the town; it dominates Carmona’s main thoroughfare, c/San Pedro and has a splendid Baroque sagrario (sacristy) within. Buses stop just short of the church in the Paseo del Estatuto, from where, looking east, you get a view of the magnificent Moorish Puerta de Sevilla , a grand and fortified Roman gateway to the old town which now houses the turismo. The old town is circled by 4km of ancient walls, inside which narrow streets wind up past Mudéjar churches and Renaissance mansions. Follow c/Prim uphill to the Plaza San Fernando (or Plaza Mayor), modest in size but dominated by splendid Moorish-style buildings. Behind it there’s a bustling fruit and vegetable market most mornings.

Close by to the east is Santa María la Mayor (Tues-Sat 9.30am-2.30pm, Sun & Mon service times; ¬1.20), a fine Gothic church built over the former main mosque, whose elegant patio it retains; like many of Carmona’s churches it is capped by a Mudéjar tower, possibly utilizing part of the old minaret. Dominating the ridge of the town are the massive ruins of Pedro’s Alcázar , destroyed by an earthquake in 1504 and now taken over by a remarkably tasteful but very expensive parador . To the left, beyond and below, the town comes to an abrupt and romantic halt at the Roman Puerta de Córdoba , from where the ancient Córdoba road (once the mighty Via Augusta heading north to Zaragoza and Gaul, now a dirt track) drops down to a vast plain.

The extraordinary Roman necropolis (guided tours: June-Sept Tues-Sat 9am-2pm; Oct-May Tues-Fri 9am-5pm, Sat & Sun 10am-2pm; ¬1.50, free to EU citizens) lies on a low hill at the opposite end of Carmona; walking out of town from San Pedro take c/Enmedio, the middle street (parallel to the main Sevilla road) of three that leave the western end of the Paseo del Estatuto; follow this for about 450m. Here, amid the cypress trees, more than nine hundred family tombs dating from the second century BC to the fourth century AD can be found. Enclosed in subterranean chambers hewn from the rock, the tombs are often frescoed and contain a series of niches in which many of the funeral urns remain intact. Some of the larger tombs have vestibules with stone benches for funeral banquets, and several retain carved family emblems (one is of an elephant, perhaps symbolic of long life). Most spectacular is the Tumba de Servilia - a huge colonnaded temple with vaulted side chambers. Opposite is a partly excavated amphitheatre , though as yet it isn’t included in the tour.

CARBONERAS has an average beach and a few hostales but is scarred by the shadow of a massive cement factory, which dominates its bay. Beyond, a small road extends to the isolated fishing hamlet of AGUA AMARGA , an infinitely more attractive spot with a fine beach backed by a tasteful crop of villas. There are limited places to stay , of which the best is easily the French-run Pensión Family (tel 950 138 014, fax 950 138 208; ¬36-48), which has a good restaurant with a great value menú ; you’ll need to book well ahead in high season. Both Carboneras and Agua Amarga are served by bus from Almería.

North from Mojácar there’s easier access, with occasional buses and reasonably easy hitching, to LA GARRUCHA , a lively, if unattractive, town and fishing harbour. This is in the process of development, with villas now thick on the ground and many more in the offing, but it does have a life of its own besides tourism. There are several expensive hostales and a summer-only youth hostel , but you’re more likely to visit its reasonable beach as a good afternoon’s break from Mojácar. There are also some fine fish restaurants around the fishing harbour; El Almejero , with its terrace actually fronting the quayside, is one of the best - if the fish landed don’t meet their high standards, they don’t open - and they have an equally excellent tapas bar, too.

The kiosco at the centre of the village near where the bus drops you hands out a village map , sells newspapers and large-scale walking maps, and acts as an information office. Just downhill from here lies the village’s museum , containing displays of regional dress and handicrafts, as well as various bits and pieces belonging to, or produced by, Pedro Alarcón, the nineteenth-century Spanish writer who made a trip through the Alpujarras and wrote a (not very good) book about it. There are numerous places to stay and eat . One of the quietest places in town, well away from the main road, is the Fonda Restaurante El Tilo , Plaza Calvario (tel 958 763 181; ¬12-18), which also does a menú . Further uphill the pleasant Finca Los Llanos (tel 958 763 071, fax 958 763 206; ¬36-48) has apartment-style rooms with kitchenette and terrace together with its own pool and a good restaurant, while the Mesón-Hostal Poqueira (tel & fax 958 763 048; ¬18-27) near the bus stop has en-suite heated rooms, and also offers a substantial menú for around ¬6 in its terrace restaurant at the rear. Near the church, the Casa Ibero (aka the Mesón Alpujarreón ) serves excellent food and has vegetarian options.

Capileira is a handy base for easy day walks in the Poqueira Gorge. For a not-too-strenuous example, take the northernmost of three paths below the village, each with bridges across the river. This sets off from alongside the Pueblo Alpujarreño villa complex. The path winds through the huts and terraced fields of the river valley above Capileira, ending after about an hour and a half at a dirt track within sight of a power plant at the head of the valley. You can either retrace your steps or cross the stream over a bridge to follow a dirt track back to the village. In May and June, the fields are tended - laboriously and by hand - as the steep slopes dictate. Reasonably clear paths or tracks also lead to Pampaneira (2-3hr, follow lower path to the bridge below Capileira), continuing to Carataunas (1hr, mostly road) and Órgiva (45min, easy path) from where you can get a bus back. In the other direction, taking the Sierra Nevada road and then the first major path to the right, by a ruined stone house, you can reach Pitres (2hr), Pórtugos (30min more) and Busquistar (45min). Going in the same direction but taking the second decent-sized path (by a sign encouraging you to “conserve and respect nature”), Trevélez is some five hours away - you can also get to Pórtugos this way. More fine walking routes in this zone are detailed in Landscapes of Andalucía by John and Christine Oldfield and the Discovery Walking Guide .

At MADRIGAL DE LA VERA , a more attractive village 12km to the west of Candeleda, there’s an official campsite, Alardos (tel 927 565 066; March-Sept), and yet another route across the Gredos, this time leading to Bohoyo , a hamlet 4km southwest of El Barco de Ávila.

The Plaza de Leones , an appealing cobbled square enclosed by Renaissance buildings, stands slightly back at the far end. Here, on a rounded balcony, the first Mass of the Reconquest is reputed to have been celebrated; the mansion beneath it houses the turismo (Mon-Fri 9am-2.30pm, Sat 10am-1pm; tel 953 740 444), where you can pick up a map (which conveniently incorporates an Úbeda town map as well) and English-language walking-tour brochure of the town. There are no charges to enter any of Baeza’s monuments but you may offer the guardian a small propina (tip).

Finest of Baeza’s mansions is the Palacio de Jabalquinto (patio open Tues-Sun 10am-1pm & 4-6pm), now a seminary, with an elaborate “Isabelline” front (showing marked Moorish influence in its stalactite decoration). Close by, the sixteenth-century Catedral (daily 10am-1pm & 5.15-7pm), like many of Baeza and Úbeda’s churches, has brilliant painted rejas (iron screens) created in the sixteenth century by Maestro Bartolomé, the Spanish master of this craft. In the cloister, part of the old mosque has been uncovered, but the cathedral’s real novelty is a huge silver custodia - cunningly hidden behind a painting of St Peter which whirls aside for a 100ptas coin (which they may eventually get around to converting to take euros).

There are some good walks around town: wandering up through the Puerta de Jaén on the Plaza de los Leones and along the Paseo Murallas/Paseo de Don Antonio Machado takes you round the edge of Baeza with good views over the surrounding plains. You can cut back to the Plaza Mayor via the network of narrow stone-walled alleys - with the occasional arch - that lie behind the cathedral.

Accommodation is adequate but mostly upmarket: for budget options try the Hostal El Patio , c/Conde Ramones 13, near the Plaza de Leones (tel 953 740 200; ¬12-27), an old Renaissance mansion set around an enclosed courtyard with a wood-beamed dining hall; or the Hostal Comercio (tel 953 740 100; ¬18-27) on c/San Pablo, a main road at the end of the central square, at no. 21 - both have some rooms with bath. Best of the central pricier places is Hotel Baeza , c/Concepción 3, near the Plaza de España (tel 953 748130, fax 953 742519; ¬60-90), partly set inside a former Renaissance palace. Good bets for food and drink include the ancient Cafetería Mercantil , on the Plaza de España, which besides being the best place for a lazy terrace breakfast offers decent tapas and raciones later in the day. Nearby, Casa Lucas , Plaza España 13, is a local favourite for more tapas and economical platos combinados . For a bit more style try the pleasant terrace of the mid-priced Restaurante Sali around the corner at c/Benavides 9 with a view of Baeza’s magnificent sixteenth-century ayuntamiento . Casa Pedro at no. 3 on the same street is another possibility, with a menú for around ¬12.

The nearest train station is Linares-Baeza 14km from Baeza and served by frequent trains from Sevilla, Córdoba and Granada (there is a connecting bus for most trains, except on Sun; ¬12 taxi ride). Most bus connections are via Úbeda.