Michelle Obama certainly has great taste in vacation venues when she decided to holiday in southern Spain last week with her daughter, Sascha, and friends. One of the most picturesque cities in the Andalucian area that she visited was Ronda. I certainly don’t have any insider information on her full itinerary in this Moorish town, but I’m sure she took in some of the more iconic offerings.
1. I walked through the Jardines Ciudad de Cuenca, a series of tiered gardens that sit on the edge of the gorge. These green spaces are a quiet oasis landscaped with palms, cacti, roses, stone benches and boulders.
2.At the18th century Casa del Rey Moro or House of the Moorish King, I visited the surrounding Islamic and European garden with its manicured hedges, lily pond, palms and cedar. Here, I climbed down the long, slippery underground stairway that was cut out of solid rock. At the end of the 365 steps that lead to the bottom of the gorge, I looked out at the impressive rock face and green water of the Guadalevin River.
3. Sitting on the edge of Ronda’s precipice, the Casa del Don Juan Bosco is noted for its extensive collection of local ceramics. Decorative art also found outside the house in the tiered garden with decorative tile work, mosaics and fountains.
4. At the Plaza Maria Auxiadora or Plaza del Campillo with its flowering trees is a narrow path that snakes down to the bottom of the gorge. Along the way, I found the remains of the medieval city walls, an old Moorish door to the city and flourmills also from the Arabic period. This path has one of the best views of the gorge, El Tajo, as you stand face-to-face with the cliff and directly across from the New Bridge, and the waterfall that tumbles into the river.
5. The museum inside the Palacio de Mondragon displayed an interesting Muslim funeral exhibit with tombstones dating from the 14th century and an explanation of how the dead were buried on the outskirts of Ronda.
7. I could’ve spent hours examining arrest warrants, dioramas of bandits’ hiding places in caves, their weapons, death certificates, and pseudonyms all on display at the appropriately named Bandit Museum. The extensive exhibits are devoted to the life of Spain’s bandits, especially the bandits of Andalusia where they have long been romanticized in literature and myth.
8. Popular with locals, the Alameda del Tajo Gardens in the center of town are landscaped with iron arbors, palmetto, bamboo, conifers and a balcony hanging over the cliff edge. Here, I strolled the adjacent path lined with flowering shrubs and trees that parallels the gorge.
9. When I finally stopped to relax, I ordered a caf
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