Ernest Hemingway and Orson Welles were part-time residents of Ronda's old-town quarter La Ciudad. Both wrote about it and its famous bullfighting traditions. Described contrarily as the third most visited town in Spain and a hidden gem in tourist bumpf Ronda is an easy diversion between the Costa del Sol with its holidaying hordes of pissed up chavs and captivating Seville. That and its literary connections ring alarm bells when it comes to anticipating claustrophobic crowds. We need not have worried - the large coach parking area on the edge of town was mostly empty and tourist numbers by no means aggravating.
Sitting on the edge of an escarpment and divided in two by the 100+ meter deep El Tajo canyon which is spanned by the arches of the Puente Nuevo bridge built over 40 years from 1759. It's a small, pretty place set in special scenery with a colourful history. Variously Celtic, Phoenician, Roman, Visigothic, Berber it became a refuge for Moriscos, Islamic converts to Catholicism, during the repression of the Inquisition. The Moriscos were expelled from Ronda following an uprising in the 1500s.
The A-397 Ctra de Ronda from Ronda offers mountain scenery from winding switchbacks with flash villas and haciendas on the last descent to the coast near Marbella.