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34% of the bottles have been sold in the Girona region, but Barcelona is still “the pending market”. Sales have been 5% higher in comparison to 2010 and 18% higher compared to the last four years. The president of the wine designation, Josep Blanch, said that this “achievement” proves that Empordà DO has consolidated because since its beginnings, it has been growing year by year in a “consistent” way.

The eruption of the volcano Vesuvius destroyed the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, amongst others. However, the studies of the remnants have allowed historians to reconstruct the lives of these cities in an exhibition now hosted in l’Escala (Catalonia). The exhibition comes from Italy and uses the latest technologies (scenographic reconstructions, multisensorial effects, virtual interfaces, holograms, 3D technology, interactive systems and a unique 3D film with tridimensional sound and special effects) to enable visitors to walk and live in Pompeii, Herculaneum, Baiae, Stabiae and Capri. For example, they can visit the Nymphaeum of Baia which is seven metres below ground. The exposition will be open until 9th September.

The British financial news publication has also awarded the Spanish Santander the ‘Best Bank in the World 2012’. Euromoney emphasised CaixaBank’s fiancial solvency and its strong growth over the previous years.

The ‘Caixa Penedès Vijazz’ kicked off with a concert from the seven-Grammy award winner Al Jarreau. At the heart of one of Catalonia’s most famous wine regions and less than 50 km away from Barcelona, a series of jazz concerts take place over the weekend, combined with wine tasting.

The 5th edition of the Catalan capital’s music festival ‘Cruïlla Barcelona’ kicked off with Iggy & the Stooges, Nneka, Gogol Bordello, Julieta Venegas, La Pegatina, M.I.A, The Specials, Cypress Hills, 2manydjs, Sharon Jones, Amadou & Mariam, Linton Kwesi Johnson and Gustavo Gordera being some of the 35 artists who will play their music from Friday to Saturday night.

The ruling Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition, Convergència i Unió (CiU) and the People’s Party (PP) have agreed to evaluate the drug prescription fee in 2013. The implementation in 2013 of the 1 euro fee will be on the condition of meeting the deficit targets and the effects of other financial measures regarding medicines. The PP has abstained in the Catalan Parliament’s vote and the plan finally has the green light to be implemented.

Catalan and international painting from 1870 to 1970 will interact to show the relation between people and landscape. The exhibition ‘Landscapes of light, dream landscapes. From Gauguin to Delvaux’ kicks off the activities at the Espai Carmen Thyssen, in Sant Feliu de Guíxols Monastry, on the Costa Brava. This will be the first of many exhibitions in this Catalan coastal town, said Carmen Thyssen. In fact the Baroness and the town’s City Council are planning to build a permanent Thyssen Museum in the town. Thyssen also stated that it would be “wonderful” to show more paintings in her collection at Catalonia’s National Art Museum’s expansion.

Catalan companies sold more goods and services abroad than they did to the rest of Spain in 2011. 52.9% of all Catalonia’s external sales were made abroad, while 47.1% were made to the rest of Spain. In addition, it is the first time that Catalonia has registered a positive balance of trade.

From Sunday to Wednesday, the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), located in Tarragona, hosted a chemistry conference in order to discuss the latest discoveries in this discipline. Six chemistry Nobel Prize winners participated in the ‘Southern Catalonia Nobel Campus’, as well as Finn Kydland, who won the Nobel Prize of Economics in 2004. Kydland gave the opening speech. The chemistry days took place at the PortAventura conference centre, located next to the Costa Daurada amusement park.

The Balfegó Group has started to offer a ‘Tuna-Tour’ that allows tourists to visit in catamaran the farms where tuna are fed and being taken care of. The Balfegó Group aims to show off its sustainable fishing techniques for preserving this endangered species. The tour lasts two hours and fifteen minutes and allows tourists to swim with the endangered fish if they want to.

English Summer S.A. has been organising English language immersion camps for kids for 30 years. This summer, Jiajia Wang Liu is organising a new concept for the company: a Chinese language summer camp. Wang Liu is an entrepreneur who came from China when she was 8. She studied economics at the Pompeu Fabra University and at Harvard. Nowadays, she has her own publishing house and a lot of projects on the go.

The Catalan defender has been at FC Barcelona’s offices the day before he signed his new contract with the Catalan club. The visit is the first step in a busy 36 hours for Barça’s latest signing and recent Euro 2012 winner.

The ‘Gaudí Experiència’ offers the visitor, in 9 different languages, an interactive experience, diving into the work of the Catalan genius who designed the Sagrada Família, La Pedrera, the Casa Batlló and the Parc Güell. In fact, the new museum is located next to the famous park. It shows how nature’s elements including cypress trees, water and the Montserrat Mountain inspired Gaudí.

Unemployment in Catalonia dropped by 15,356 in June, leaving the total number of people registered as being unemployed at 615,576 individuals. It is the fourth consecutive month that the number of people registered as unemployed dropped in Catalonia. In the whole of Spain, unemployment also decreased last June. By the end of June there were 98,853 fewer people registered as unemployed throughout Spain.

6 of the 8 Barça players that won the EURO title with Spain were named to the best team of the EURO. Valdés, Pedro and the Dutchman Afellay are the only Barça players that did not make the all-star team.