“All the most beautiful things are in Sevilla.” A woman in a flamenco apron, en route to a local flamenco club, told us this. And Sevilla is amazing. I wish we could have stayed a few more days. But I also would have to argue that there are some very beautiful things in Ronda. Beginning with this gorge that runs through the center of town. We were walking from the train station to find our pension, which we knew was accessed over the “new bridge.”

Turns out the new bridge was constructed in the mid-1700s – the old one was rebuilt in the early 1600s. This is a picture of the new bridge from below, where we walked on some occasionally scary paths. This trail would definitely be fenced off in the U.S.


The Hotel Ronda was the most lovely place we stayed. The window to the left of the door in this picture was our room, and was one of 2 windows. Some of the places we stayed had only one tiny window high up in a 15-foot wall, or a window that opened on an air shaft, for example. Lara, the owner of the Hotel Ronda, greeted us with café con leche upon arrival, washed and folded our laundry and served fruit and café in the morning. I could have lived there for a while.



Ronda is a "white hilltown" with cobbled winding streets that all eventually lead to gorgeous overviews of the gorge or the farmlands to either side. This is also where the bullfight was invented, which moved rampaging bulls and the crazy men who taunt them from generally running around in plazas into the more controlled space of a bullring. We sat in the stands and imagined the roar of the crowds, the smell of blood and dust, the music, flirting, and drinking that have taken place in this space for hundreds of years. We had no desire to actually see a bullfight, however. The museum was fascinating, with matador outfits, engravings by de Goya, and posters from bullfights from centuries past.



These narrow passageways provide an escape hatch from furious bulls!