Costa Del Sol

November 12-20, 2022

Malaga, Spain

   As the weather in Italy was getting cold we decided to head to the South of Spain, Costa del Sol. Luckily Lisa has an old friend she grew up with in Dunrobin who lives near Malaga.   Despite the fact that they had not seen each other in 30+ years Danny made us completely welcome.    We had originally planned for a quick visit then head off to explore but Danny was happy to have us stay and use his home as a base for daily excursions.  His hospitality was impossible to refuse. In the video below I was not driving the Ferrari.  Danny’s Ferrari F12 berlinetta can do 360kph so I left the driving to him. He raced Formula 3000 so I was in safe hands and he kept the speeds below 280kph. Next stop exploring the small towns Ronda (the birth place of modern bullfighting and Mija Pueblo. 

Mija & Ronda, Italy

   From our base near Malaga, Spain we made several day trips to small villages including Mija Pueblo and Ronda.  

  Mija is a famous "white village" with lots of tour busses and horse drawn carriages.   The blue shutters and furniture against the white walls felt very Greek to me but it was a nice change from all the dark medieval stone villages we were used to in Italy.  

 Ronda on the other hand was something truly special.  To start, getting there required a harrowing drive through a beautiful and terrifying “highway.” The road is incredibly curvy and so narrow in some spots they don’t paint a centre line because if they did the car on the inside would be scraping rock and the cars on the outside would be hanging off a cliff.

The city itself is split in two by a giant chasm which is spanned by several colossal stone bridges.  Aside from the beauty of the city it also hosts the largest bull ring in Europe and holds claim to being the origin of the artistic drama of the modern day bullfight.

Malga & Nerja, Spain

    In our last few days in Spain we stayed close to our home base and just made a couple of day trips. 

First stop Malaga.  Malaga is full of beautiful churches, museums and castles but after months of touring some of the most amazing churches, museums and castles we instead went to a world famous tapas bar called El Pimpi.  Here I discovered my new favorite cocktail “Tommy’s Mom” it’s basically a margarita but with mango, chipotle and lime.  Yummmm!

 Next we went about 2 hours north to the beach town of Nerja because they are famous for their paella.  We went early to the Ayo Mediterranean restaurant right on the beach and watched them start the paella in the morning on an open fire and a pile of chicken being seared on a giant pan that looked ancient. After touring are around the town and the Nerja cave we came back when the paella was ready and it was very tasty.

 After lunch we drove up the mountain to Frigiliana.  This small white town of 3,000 residence is mostly devoted to tourism now but still has a functioning sugarcane mill.  No matter where you look there is another perfect picture and It feels like any moment the cast from Moma Mia will come walking around the corner.   After photographing the setting sun that seemed to last forever we drove home via the back roads through the amazing mountains and small villages.  We only got lost once in the maze of small streets - we were never 100% if we were on a road or a small path that would dead end at some locals front door. 

   Next stop back to Italy to stay with our friends in Chieri for our last week of our three month away from home