Plaza de la Merced
Where we started. The obelisk in the middle is for Torrijos and the forty-eight men shot with him on the beach in 1831 — the square was a market before it was a monument.
Casa Natal Picasso
Number 15, the corner of the square: he was born on the first floor in 1881 and left at ten. Small, cheap, and a different thing from the Museo Picasso — this is the house, that is the collection.
Iglesia de Santiago
The oldest church in the city, 1490, built onto a mosque's minaret — which is why the tower is brick and Mudéjar and the rest is not. Picasso was baptised here.
Plaza de la Constitución
The city's front room for five centuries, and the far end of Calle Larios. Everything municipal happened here — including, for a long time, the things nobody wants a plaque for.
Calle Marqués de Larios
Cut through the old town in the 1890s and paid for by the Larios family, which is why it is straight and everything around it is not. The marble is slippery in the rain.
Catedral de Málaga
La Manquita — the one-armed lady. The second tower was never finished, and the money is usually said to have gone to the American war of independence. Our Cathedral tour is the inside, without the queue.
Palacio Episcopal de Málaga
The pink and grey façade facing the Cathedral, and the best baroque doorway in the city. Free exhibitions inside more often than people expect — worth trying the door.
Museo de Málaga
The old customs house, now fine arts and archaeology in one building. Free for EU citizens, and the least crowded big museum in Málaga by a distance.
Teatro Romano
First century BC, lost under a cultural centre until 1951 and only fully uncovered in the nineties. Free, and the stone above it in the Alcazaba wall was quarried straight out of it.
Alcazaba de Málaga
Eleventh century, and the reason the Roman theatre is missing its columns. We only saw the outside today — the palaces, the courtyards and the gardens are the tour we do properly.
Jardines de Puerta Oscura
The terraced gardens climbing between the Alcazaba and the port, and the shortcut almost nobody takes. Free, shaded, and the quietest view of the harbour in the centre.