Ronda, el choque ideal (the perfect place to meet)

12 Mar

12Mar

“It’s not necessary to have been born in Ronda to recognise that the Ciudad del Tajo is one of the most beautiful places in Málaga province, in Andalucia, if not in the whole of Spain.”

These are the words of Sebastián Gámez Millán, teacher and writer.

I agree.

That’s why I invested in property here nearly a quarter of a century ago and finally moved here from England 15 years ago after I retired and my wife of 25 years divorced me.

Why is Ronda so impressive?

Sebastián Gámez Millán maintains that pueblos blancos such as Ronda are so enticing for four reasons:

Their natural beauty and their geography;

Their urban landscape and architecture;

Their historical and cultural heritage;

and, their citizens and customs.

Guiris in Ronda

Hardly surprising, then, that the troubled Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke, who came here at the end of the 19^th century, was cured of his writer’s block and enjoyed the most productive period of his life in the town he labelled “Ciudad Soñada”

^{Rainer Maria Rilke}

Hardly surprising, either, that foreigners/outsiders such as Ernest Hemingway, José Luis Borges, Ava Gardner, Orson Welles, Raymonde Pagégie, Alastair Boyd, Guy Hunter-Watts, KRAUT GUY, Georgina Richmond, David Seaton, Martin Amis, Michael Coy, Karethe Linaee, Miguel Ruiz Trigueros, Edward Lewine, and Seamus Gaffney chose to spend time or live here.

^{Karethe Linaee}

Oops, I forgot pop icon Madonna, celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, US actor George Hamilton IV, UK singer Daniel Bedingfield and rock star Marcus Myers.

^{Jamie Oliver}

I know/knew many of these immigrants (or guiris). Hemingway, Boyd, Lewine and Amis through their books; Welles via his films; Hunter-Watts personally and through his walking guides; Richmond and Seaton through their art; good drinking buddies: writer and all-round good sort Michael Coy, and Seamus Gaffney, the horse whisperer.

^{Guy Hunter-Watts}

Not forgetting other good friends Karethe Linaee, from Norway, and Miguel Ruiz Trigueros.

Ronda, de puta madre

I chose to spend the rest of my days on this earth in Ronda, because I fell in love with the place a quarter of a century ago. I speak fluent Spanish, which helps enormously, and gives me a social life away from the dreaded “expats”.

^{Pablo de Ronda and wife Rita}

Apart from a handful of bureaucratic frustrations, I “lurve” living here.

The post-Brexit United Kingdom of Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, and Rishi Sunak does not interest me. I hope it will improve when Labour’s Keir Starmer becomes prime minister in November, but I doubt it.

The UK is f**ked!

© Pablo de Ronda