podtour
A street, a detail, a question
Podtour begins with a particular way of travelling: walking, noticing a detail and wondering what happened there. Sometimes it is a famous façade. Sometimes it is an inscription, a bridge or a square that everyone else seems to hurry through. We are interested in stories that connect these places to people: who wanted to build them, who lived with the consequences and which versions have reached us. We want you to follow those threads as you walk, without having to read a screen at every turn.
The research comes first
Each city has its own editorial research. We gather sources, organise events and characters, and look for themes that can sustain a walk. Routes grow from that material, rather than from a list of monuments with a generic description attached. One neighbourhood might be understood through its trades; another through a dispute, an urban transformation or lives left out of the best-known account. The catalogue lets you choose between those approaches before setting off.
Research files are kept separate from scripts. They retain references and unresolved questions, while the route brief defines the story a walk promises to tell and who it is for. This helps us spot repetition, ask whether an anecdote belongs on that particular route and prevent a colourful tale from taking the place of a documented event. We keep track of the materials, references and their provenance throughout the editorial process.
A legend deserves to be called a legend
Cities are also made of the things their inhabitants have wanted to believe. We do not want to strip those stories away, but repeating them confidently does not turn them into historical evidence. When something belongs to local tradition, we say so. When sources disagree, that difference matters. And when a popular tale emerged long after the events it describes, its date is part of the story.
This affects how we write. A promise of love, a miracle or a curse can belong in a walk without us claiming it happened. We are interested both in the past and in how a city learnt to tell its own story. The aim is for you to finish with something worth sharing and a clear sense of what is documented, what remains uncertain and what people have passed down.
Written to be heard on the spot
A Podtour script is not an encyclopaedia entry read aloud. It has a sequence of stops, a thread to follow and room to look around. We choose where a story begins, which detail helps explain it and when it makes sense to move on. Each route page shows the distance, approximate duration and stops so you can decide whether the walk fits the day you have planned.
Mapping and writing are separate tasks. Our maps use documented pedestrian routes; they do not mean that every entrance has been checked in person, nor do they guarantee accessibility. We describe the conditions we know about and avoid promising that a door will be open or that a staircase will suit everyone. Monument tours organise stories by area, so you can choose what to hear without following a compulsory physical itinerary.
Two languages, the same care
Every route includes Spanish and British English. Adaptation means thinking about the listener: their references, the rhythm of a sentence and what needs a little context. A joke, a name or a custom does not always carry the same meaning across languages. We want both versions to sound natural and to take the same care over the distinction between documented history and tradition.
The day is still yours
There is no group to catch up with and no fixed finishing time. Stop for lunch, replay a story or leave the rest for tomorrow. Download the audio in the app before heading out and you can listen without a connection. Our “Before you go” guides cover the practical side of the trip; the walks provide the stories. There is a free walk in every city so you can try our approach.
As the catalogue grows, we keep the same foundations: a clear route brief, organised research, stories attached to places and a map you can consult before choosing. If something needs correcting, we want to be able to find it and improve it. Travelling with curiosity also means being willing to revisit what we thought we knew.