COSTA DEL SOL

With more than 300 days of sunshine a year, the Costa del Sol offers fantastic beach side living. Complementing sophisticated and style-conscious Marbella are resorts with numerous tourist attractions. There are lots of magic Mediterranean beaches to soak up the sun. The Costa del Golf is an excellent destination on the Iberian Peninsula. With its more than fifty golf courses, the Costa del Sol is considered the greatest golfing centre on the continent of Europe. With excellent infrastructure, privileged climate and extraordinary services, everything is in place to offer the golfer everything to complete his or her dream. Tournaments are organized all year round for all categories and ages.

Malaga, known as the city of light, the capital of Costa del Sol, is situated where land meets sea in Andalusia, a sea which saw the birth of Picasso.

Thanks to the length of its coast, the province of Malaga also has an enormous variety of beaches with fine sand. There are 11 yacht marinas on the Costa del Sol, which offer short cruises. Special mention must be given to “La Catedral de Malaga”- Malaga’s sixteenth century Cathedral, one of the most important Renaissance temples in Spain. Pablo Ruiz Picasso is well represented in the city of his birth, thanks to the Picasso Museum, a gallery of international standing. The gallery has a collection of over two hundred original works, including oil paintings, drawings, sculptures, engravings and ceramics.

Spain is in some way the country with the highest number of olive trees. In Andalucía the most important olive oil-producing areas are in the province of Jaén. Olive trees are slow growing, traditionally bearing fruit after fifteen years, though modern production techniques have brought maturity down to five. The first olive tree plantations were grown in the Eastern Mediterranean more than five thousand years ago. The olive tree was cultivated in areas occupied by the most ancient civilizations: the Egyptians, the Babylonians and the Assyrians. Later, the Phoenicians introduced olives to the Western world, and from then on, the olive tree accompanied the expansions of the cultures that laid the foundations of the Mediterranean civilization: the Greeks, the Romans and the Arabs. In the Bible, the olive is mentioned in several places. In the New Testament, we are told that Jesus prayed on the Mount of Olives. An olive grove demands a lot of work, since olive growing is a

labour-intensive process requiring fertilizing and ploughing the soil. Olive trees blossom at the beginning of spring, producing a number of tiny flowers-known as trama in some parts of Andalusia-from which yellowish pollen is spread. Olives set at the beginning of sum­mer and are fully ripe before winter. Axarquia, or the Eastern Region, produces between 6,000 and 8,000 hectares of olive oil. The region has 19 oil mills, 14 of them being cooperatives and 5 industrial mills.