Malaga, the best luxury resort in Spain and among the top 10 in Europe
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Marbella has been synonymous with the party for decades. The one with the uncorking of bottles of champagne of inaccessible price and in the hands of the show business. With the traveling compass of the wealthiest people always pointing to it as a north point. It has been that way until, little by little, the citadel resurfaced from the ashes of the
jet set
and
gilismo
to once again be that little
corner of the Costa del Sol with a seafaring culture
, a cosmopolitan spirit and many indigenous jewels to be revealed.
Of all of them, its Roman imprint could be highlighted as one of the most surprising ways of accessing the city.
We find it in
San Pedro Alcántara,
a small urban nucleus 15 kilometers from it, where several sites are preserved that
can be visited with a guide for free.
AMAZING RUINS
We go first to the
Roman baths
located next to the mouth of the Guadalmina River and accompanied by a medieval watchtower.
One of the several that still exist in Marbella, such as the famous Torre de los Ladrones (Thieves Tower) (attributed to the time of Muslim domination), and that made up the coastal defensive system for centuries.
The Tower of Thieves LOLO VASCO
The image is unthinkable after skirting the streets of tourist buildings and chalets until reaching the ruins.
The
mosaic remains on the ground
and, above all, the
polygonal shape
of the thermal bath around a pool in the center are striking.
"Already strange in itself," says Miguel Vila, the excavation's chief archaeologist.
But even more so the fact that until the 60s, it
belonged to private hands
, and whose owner used the structure as a party room and bacchanalia until its transfer to the City Council.
Not far away are the remains of the famous
early Christian basilica of Vega of the Sea
.
This 6th century building is one of the oldest examples of a Christian church in our country and stands out for being
one of the three with an immersion baptismal font
, as Vila emphasizes.
The mystery to be solved is "whether this belonged to a Roman city or an isolated community," he adds.
Baptismal font in the Paleo-Christian basilica of Vega del Mar. TOURISM OF MARBELLA
Just over five minutes by car separate the ancient history that Marbella keeps in these ruins from its New Kingdom.
Marbella beach bar par excellence.
Not just any one, but probably the one with the most history and local tradition.
Its charismatic owner, Pepe Romero, with his daily glass of champagne in hand, tells how his father set up the
first straw and cane beach bar in the area in 1957
, taking advantage of the sale of the first chalets to movie people and other artists.
"The actors Alberto Closas, Manuel Andrés González or the cartoonist Mingote", mentioned among the regulars at that time,
first to their sandwiches and later to the espetos
, of which Nuevo Reino is now a great fiefdom.
Among the restaurant's specialties, its
fish of various origins stand out.
Norway lobster and red mullet from Estepona, prawns and coquinas from Huelva, snapper and hurtas from Conil, sea bream from Tarifa and bream or wild sea bass from La Línea.
Marine
delicacies that serve as a prelude to Marbella's urbanity.
THE CHARM OF THE HELMET
Once there, a route through the old part of the city leads us to recognize at a first glance the
mixture of cultures
that its journey houses and its deepest essence.
Its squares with orange trees, its narrow
winding streets
dotted by picturesque little shops that put the popular note next to the niches of little virgins.
Or its whitewashed houses with balconies, geraniums and bougainvilleas, with heavy bars on their windows that still recall the dangerousness of the area
at the time of La Reconquista
and later due to banditry.
Puerto Banús, located six kilometers from Marbella.
Among its most famous walking spots is
Calle Ancha
, which used to be used to enter and leave Marbella through the Puerta de Ronda, and which we see
full of noble houses
with large balconies.
It is there where even exclusivity harmonizes with tradition and craftsmanship.
AUTHOR'S LODGING
Accommodation is an example of this union, with the arrival of
boutique
hotels
that seek to
recover the authenticity and identity of the city
. We appreciate it when stepping on the
Maison Ardois
, a new bet of the Ciudadela Marbella group that will open its doors
this August
, with the idea of offering the highly demanding public an option that combines luxury and sophistication with the charm of the old town.
In this old manor house built in 1929 and which houses nine rooms, there is a lot of author's hand from its creator, Miguel Cerván, CEO of the real estate group Rhone Property. "Although they recommended the opposite, we did not stop until we had a restorer who maintained the hydraulic floors produced
in the centennial Malaga factory of José Hidalgo Espíldora
from its original structure," he says. Like the vaults between the beams, the capialized in the windows or the details of some rooms such as Egyptian cotton pillows.
That same effort has been put into the
Hotel Santo Cristo,
another new alternative located in the Plaza Santo Cristo de la Vera Cruz and composed of 15 rooms distributed
around a patio and several galleries
on quadrangular pillars and beams that rest on footings.
Now is the time to enjoy dinner at the Thaissence restaurant at the Maison Ardois. There, chef
Pablo Rebollo
presents a menu that is the perfect symbiosis between Thai and Peruvian cuisine based on
0 kilometer product
with local and international pairing. All this is palpable in dishes such as the Lima-flavored Marbella dish, the marinated red tuna flask and kimchi sautéed or in the entrecote with almond cream and
pak choi
, a vegetable quite similar to Chinese cabbage.
The inescapable thing the next day is to soak up the history of this city, which "in 1960 already had 12,000 inhabitants", as Pascal Frulli, an Andalusian tourist guide, points out.
As the citadel is accessed again, it is easy to get lost seeing its most representative points.
We walk discovering emblematic enclaves such as the
church of Nuestra Señora de la Encarnación
or the Plaza de los Naranjos, "the nerve center from where the city began to be traced," according to Trulli, with bars where the accent of natives fades with the many of outside.
EXQUISITE ON THE MILE
The time has come to set off towards the so-called Golden Mile. The stretch of road that connects the city center with Puerto Banús.
Here we not only find
the greatest halo of exclusivity
in luxury hotels such as the
Don Pepe Gran Meliá
, but also a whole gastro universe with a halo of exclusivity and innovation and full of Michelin stars.
Tuna and caviar toast, in El Lobito de MarJavier Peñas
Separated from the promenade, we come across
Lobito de Mar
, a beach bar with no beach signed by the two-star Marbella chef Dani García.
In its
800 square meters,
with space for 165 diners and full of marine motifs, it is possible to have tapas
from 2.5 euros
at the bar.
We find in this place a kitchen aimed at a wide audience within this exclusive area and which stands out for its
good sample of Andalusian crustaceans,
as is the custom of this chef.
Its clams in green sauce, the cuttlefish croquettes, the cod omelette made at the moment at the table or the various varieties of tuna deserve a special mention.
Boho Club pool.
A very different environment from the one we perceive when we move up the stretch of road that connects the city center with Puerto Banús, and where we find the
Boho Club
, a small luxury hotel with a lot of charm (it only has 30 rooms) that has with a restaurant run by
Diego del Rí
o, a Malaga chef with a proven track record.
In this multifunctional space always accompanied by music (
with a DJ session at night
) it is possible to enjoy from breakfast or coffee in a
chic
atmosphere
to a menu that includes several favorite dishes among the clientele, such as
corn soup
or the oysters with a radish-caper yogurt sauce.
To cite some of the surprises that can be tasted on this farm since 2019, very much in keeping with a city that feels good its airs of change.
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