Everyone seems really intent on believing that a classic paella has seafood in it and that it's something you eat when you're on the coast.



To recap:

Paella Valenciana is made with chicken and rabbit - it has no fish or shellfish. There are other kinds of paellas (and I've described them), but these are more like aberrations than the norm.

It would not surprise me to see Spaniards and Catalans eating some version of paella de marisco at a coastal town - the majority of Valencians don't usually eat paella anywhere near a beach. It's a dish we associate mainly with 'el campo' (the countryside/grazing lands).

I've eaten a few paellas de marisco at restaurants, I have never been blown away by any of them*. However, a true Paella Valenciana I consider to be one of the world's great culinary creations.

As Silverswimmer has pointed out, cigalas are not from the Meditarranean. In fact, very few shellfish eaten in Spain is from local waters nowadays. And what is commands atronomically high prices (like the red prawns - a speciality of nearby Denia).
Not so long ago, shellfish was cheap and abundant and easily accessible locally. This isn't the case anymore.

But I fight a losing battle trying to get non-Valencians/Murcians to understand. I've seen a program where Gordon Ramsey tries to turn around the fortunes of a Restaurant near Malaga (la parra) and makes something he asserts is a genuine, authentic paella. It includes chorizo and mixes chicken and shellfish and he added sherry to it. Enough to make me explete a few F words of my own.


*I'd recommend that you forget about eating Paella de Marisco in Spain and find somewhere you can enjoy a great Arroz a Banda instead.