Cueva de la Pileta is 15km south of Ronda, and is well worth seeing unless you suffer from claustrophobia or hate bats. These prehistoric cave paintings of fish, goats, horses and bulls, as well as abstract symbols, in charcoal, red and yellow, date from the late Palaeolithic period (3rd century BC).

Nerja has a great selection of beaches: the sandy half-moons of Playa del Salon (west of the Balcon de Europa, separated from it by cliffs), Calahonda (to its east), next-door Carabeo and Carabeillo, are all reached from the town itself.

Bullfighting is a subject which divides people like no other, you either love it or hate it; you're an aficionado, with your preferred matadores, who can discuss technique and arte or you can't take the blood. It's about drama and colour of the spectacle, the passion of the audience and the courage and skill of the man (nearly always, Almodovar's female matador was the exception) himself.

The Nasrid summer palace  and gardens are located at the far eastern limit of the Alhambra complex. The building itself is set on a south-facing hill. The gardens, which were designed to be a productive working estate with fruit and vegetables.

Feria Paraphernalia. Each and every decorative element used in Seville’s spring fair has its own unique history. The paper lanterns that are strung across the fairgrounds first made their appearance on the scene at the 1877 fair.

One of the most controversial of Seville´s many claims is that Cristobal Colón (Christopher Columbus) is buried here, in Sevilla´s mighty Gothic cathedral, variously described as either the third, second or biggest cathedral in the world (the other contenders being St Peter´s in Rome, and St Paul´s in London), depending on who you talk to.

The 1992 Expo put Seville on the map. Andalucia had become poor and backward during the Franco era, and an injection of cash for new roads, a high-speed rail (AVE) linking Seville to Madrid and a new airport transformed the city.

Many schools, offices, shops and home have a belen (nativity scene, literally Bethlehem sometimes they do indeed have the entire town), still an important aspect of Christmas festivities in Andalucia. They feature animals (from the traditional oxen, donkeys and camels, to cows, sheep, goats, pigs, chickens, ducks, geese and dogs), Reyes Magos (Magi), angels, shepherds, farmers, artisans.

An important influence of the Carnival dates back to the 16th century, when traders brought back stories of the decadent celebrations in the Italian port cities of Venice and Genoa.

Golf courses in Andalucia offer every kind of landscape, from desert to mountain to coast. Almeria has Europe's first Arizona-style desert course.

Two of Spain's most prestigious bullrings are in Andalucia. Seville has the 18th-century Maestranza, known as the Catedral del Toreo (Cathedral of Bullfighting) and seating 14,000, while Ronda is where Pedro Romero invented modern bullfighting, on foot as opposed to on horse back (see FACT II), in the 18th century. Sevilla's bullring has its most important bullfights during the Feria de Abril, the Spring Fair, while in Ronda's Maestranza (the name for the horsemanship order which runs the bullring) the Goyescas in September see matadors wearing period costume from the Goya era.

Another famous son of Malaga, who famously never misses the city´s Semana Santa processions, is actor Antonio Banderas. Now resident in California with his wife Melanie Griffith and their daughter, he still has close links with his birthplace, owning a house in Marbella.

Unsurprisingly for somewhere with such impeccable upper-class credentials, the Jerezanos love horse-riding, and their annual Feria is second to none for equestrian attractions.

Returning to the omnipresent theme of Sr Colon, visitors to Huelva will find a host of modern-day monuments to the revered explorer. American sculptor Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney's 37-metre Cubist statue sits at Punta del Sebo, where the Tinto and Odiel rivers merge. It depicts a Franciscan friar from La Rabida (see Fact II), not Colon himself as many people incorrectly assume, and is a homage both to Colon and the Christian faith.

Visiting the ´´hammam´´ or public bathhouse was an essential pastime, both for hygiene and social reasons, in Moorish Granada - they were important meeting places for both sexes (on separate days), as well as having religious significance.

Capital of the Roman province Baetica (roughly the same area as Andalucia today), Cordoba was the birthplace of two Roman poets, Lucan and Seneca (the Younger; the less celebrated rhetorician Seneca the Older was also born here). Later, in the 12th century, Averroes, the renowned Muslim philosopher and polymath, was born here. He rose to become a judge in Seville, Cordoba and Morocco.

If you´ve ever been in a Andalucian bus or train station on a mid-February weekend and seen groups of adult-sized chickens and babies walking around, they were probably people in fancy dress on the way to Cadiz´s carnival. This ten-day long party involves, like most Spanish festivities, dressing up, drinking, dancing and singing.

As a bullfighting Mecca, Hemingway was inevitably drawn to Ronda. But he also used the town in one of his greatest novels. In "For Whom the Bell Tolls", set in the Spanish Civil War, one scene takes place in Plaza de España.

One of the biggest and most well-know all-night beach parties takes place on La Noche de San Juan (the eve of St John's Day). On the evening of 23 June, all the townsfolk of Nerja, and plenty of visitors too, head down to the shore, armed with tents, barbeques and copious liquid refreshment, to camp on the beach (normally prohibited) and grill sardines.

What is it that sets Tarifa apart as such an ideal destination for fans of extreme sports such as kite-surfing?