Marbella hotels collection

Spatulas, grills, knives, tureens, amphorae, tables laden with fish and fowl: at the Roman villa of Río Verde, a mosaic frieze in one gallery of the courtyard sets out the inventory of a kitchen. In town, old Marbella gathers its limewashed houses around the Plaza de los Naranjos, between stretches of Moorish wall. Behind, the Sierra Blanca takes its name from its pale rock, a marble. Legend has it that Queen Isabella, seeing the bay, exclaimed “qué mar tan bella”; the name was there long before her.