Walking the Milky Way – On the trail of Salvador Dalí

“He was a very noble person, absolutely intelligent, full of determination, honest to a fault.”

A smile lightens his face when Antoni Pitxot talks about his friend Salvador Dalí. While we’re walking “The Milky Way”, the white garden path in Dalí’s house in Portlligat, he hums quietly to himself and it’s clear how many good memories are tied to this house.

It was an honor to get a glimpse into Dalí’s life and work and talk to one of his friends. I didn’t  know that much about Dalí previously,  but after our visit to the Dalí museum in Figueres and talking to his friend Antoni Pitxot in his house in Portlligat; I really do admire him. I think it could take a lifetime to understand his genius but to get the best start I really recommend to visit these two places in Costa Brava:

House Museum in Portlligat

He moved into the small fisherman’s hut in 1930, totally fascinated by the landscape, the light and the isolation. Later he rebuild it into a surrealistic, inspiring, nearly exploding from creativity wonderland. Josep Pla once described it as: “Perhaps the most exact adjective would be: never-before-seen. I do not believe that there is anything like it, in this country or in any other.”

When you walk through the rooms, over the patio and around the swimming pool it’s likely that you wouldn’t be surprised if the Mad Hatter came around the corner to offer you a cup of tea.

What I liked most was a story Antoni Pitxot told us in one living room. Above the couch there’s a small outcrop in the wall. Dalí enjoyed placing visitors right under it and to see how they bumped their head when standing up again. Yes, I think Dalí was a genius, an ingenious comic.

He lived here until his wife Gala died in 1982.

The Dalí Theatre Museum in Figueres

It was in the 1960’s In Figueres, where the surrealist painter was born in 1904, when Salvador Dalí decided to construct his museum in the ruins of the old Municipal Theatre of Figueres. It’s now one of the most visited museums in Spain, you can also see it as Dalí’s biggest masterpiece. Not only you can see a lot of his work, he also designed every little thing in the museum.

Strolling around from one room to the next is possible here, as with most other museums, but Dalí wants you to do more - to lay down on the floor, to squint at things, to climb up stairs, to use your imagination – to be part of his art.

That is, perhaps, the most impressive thing about Dalí and his art. All artist want to instill feelings in you but Dalí really knows how to suck you right into it, to give you a new view of the world and turn everything upside down.

Which is exactly what he did to me.

Written and contributed for Traveldudes by JustTravelous
justtravelous.com