India, March 17 -- Vast pastures where the famous Iberian sheep feast on fallen acorns, small villages with homes of adobe and stone, olive groves, cork oaks and natural gorges. Extremadura, in Spain, is a little-known region close to Portugal. I am in Romangordo, a small village of around 300 people near the town of Caceres and very close to Monfrague National Park. This region is still very underrated and largely untouched by mass tourism.

Romangordo was an Arab settlement in the 10th century, and because of its strategic importance, it was a place of dispute between the Arabs and the Christians. It was conquered and reconquered, built and rebuilt over the centuries, with layers of history settling down in its stones. Today, the villag...