everywhere the city of my dreams, and I have finally found it in Ronda. Nothing is more startling in Spain than this wild and mountainous city”. At least that’s how it’s written in the hotel where he stayed and where his room has been turned in- to a small museum. So, Ronda is a city perched on a cliff that was divided by a river, as if by some magical force, creating a narrow but very deep gorge, and then reconnected by way of a magnificent bridge, which is where the biggest crowds gather. Thus, when you say Ronda on Instagram, you are specifically referring to that bridge that took 40-odd years to build and which brings together the old quarter of La Ciudad - formerly a Moorish town, and El Mercadillo – the part that belongs to the new era. The fields of Andalusia undulate in the distance, and the whole city glistens under a rather merciless sun that shines here constantly, because the town – especially its old Moorish part – is painted almost entirely white. The dramatic nature and this city un- der the clouds didn’t only inspire Rilke. Two other greats spent time there often, though they were admittedly closely re- lated to the city’s bullring, which is one of the oldest in Spain. They were both friends of the most famous matador of the time, Antonio Ordoñez. At the en- trance to the city park, you will be greet- ed by their busts - Ernest Hemingway and Orson Welles, both of whom loved Ronda. “Ronda is where you should go if you ever go to Spain on a honeymoon. The entire town and as far as you can see in any direction is romantic back- ground”, wrote Hemingway, while Orson Welles dedicated his epitaph to the city: “A man does not belong to the place he was born, but to the place he chose to die”. What was shocking and unknown to me was that he requested his ashes be scattered in the bullring, but as that was not allowed by the authorities, his ashes were interred in a well on the property of his friend Ordoñez, where they remain today, though it isn’t possible to visit. I could spend all day speaking to you about the stunningly beautiful Ronda, but we have to move on from this town that was never visited by Tolkien, but which could easily serve as a location in his magical world of elves and hobbits...
KAMINITO DEL REJ I sad verovatno očekujete da od- mah pohrlimo u mondensku Marbe- lju, na more, među jahte i vile svetskog džet-seta, ali mi smo ipak još uvek u zaleđu, odajemo počast liticama i pla- ninama na još jednom potpuno ne- stvarnom mestu. Doduše, ovde smo morali da stavimo kacige na glavu i po- jedemo malo straha, ali samo u počet- ku. „Kraljeva mala staza“, što Kamini- to del rej znači u prevodu (kralj Alfonso XIII je ovuda prošao), široka je oko me- tra, uklesana u stenama na preko 100 metara iznad reke i prolazi kroz im- presivnu klisuru kroz koju protiče reka
Gvadalhorse, između ogromnih ploča slojevitog krečnjaka. Zanimljivo je da zbog prirodnog okru- ženja do ulaza nije moguće stići bilo kojim prevoznim sredstvom, mada na- vigacija o tome izgleda ništa ne zna. Ona gospođa nam je neprekidno go- vorila da skrenemo desno, tamo gde je na prašnjavom putu bila postavljena rampa. Pošto smo više verovali svo- jim očima nego njoj, krenuli smo peš- ke nekih kilometar i po, potpuno sami kroz prelepu šumu, sa pogledom na reku tamo dole daleko i duboko. Sti- gli smo do ulaza na kojem su nam da- li kacigu i voki-toki da možemo da slu- šamo šta priča vodič, jer preko viseće staze ne možete sami. To iskustvo je zaista nezahvalno pre-
Andalusia » Andaluzija | 105
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