Málaga audiotours

Malaga is the city Pablo Picasso was born in, on Plaza de la Merced, on 25 October 1881. The house is now a museum. This detail matters not just as a biographical footnote but because the city has used it well, building the Museo Picasso Malaga in the 16th-century Palacio de Buenavista with a collection of 233 works, and in doing so gave itself a reason beyond beaches and sun to make people slow down and actually look at the city.

The old centre has undergone a remarkable transformation since the late 1990s, when the city pedestrianised Calle Larios, the main commercial street, and began restoring the historic fabric.

The Alcazaba, an 11th-century Moorish fortress, and the Castillo de Gibralfaro above it offer views across the port and the bay that justify the climb on their own. The Atarazanas market, housed in a 14th-century Nasrid building, is the best covered market in Andalusia for fresh produce and a mid-morning glass of local Malaga wine.