[ Feb.2018 ] Marbella is one of the main cities on the coast of Costa del Sol in the south of Spain.
Costa del Sol has a strong image that it is a low-class resort where young British or German people go on a binge, so I never felt like visiting there, but an older friend of mine in my hobby class told me that she had a great time in Marbella last autumn.
So we decided to go there in winter when even fewer people would go.
It was February, the lowest season, but the flight from London to Malaga where the nearest airport is was full.
This region is really popular among British people.
From Malaga to Marbella we took an express bus and it took about 40 minutes.
Marbella is on the coast, but there is a mountain range just behind, so the town was on the mild slope and the bus station was in the higher part.
From there we took a taxi to La Villa Marbella the hotel we had booked in the old town.
This hotel does not have a big building but a few old houses in the old town and the rooms of the houses have been converted to hotel rooms.
I would say it was one of those places people call ’boutique hotel’.
Our room was not in the same house where the reception was and in our house there were four rooms.
The interior was nice and stylish and the most interesting thing was that all the furnishings were from Asia.
Isabella, who took us there told us that the owner used to live in Singapore for a long time and he collected all these art objects used in the hotel.
Even the names of the rooms were Asian, such as ‘Koh Samui’.
The reception was not only in the different house but it was in the different street, so it was not convenient when we wanted to ask things casually, but once we got there, the people were very nice and friendly and told us whatever we 
wanted to know thoroughly.
I was very pleased that this place was far from the image of mass tourism of Costa del Sol.
The old town of Marbella was very small and very touristy for sure, but it was very pretty and picturesque.
And on the day in February, it was warm with the temperature of about 21 degree centigrade, so we took off our jackets and walked around.
The British or German tourists were in their summer clothes such as sleeveless dresses.
There were many narrow streets in the old town, crossing each other, so when we looked for some particular places, it was hard to get there even with a map, but it was so small that when we felt lost, soon enough we came across a place where we had been.
The main places to visit were the lively Plaza de los Naranjos where the tourist information office was on the corner, the citadel of the 10th century and the Iglesia de la Encarnacion, the 16th century church.
The statues inside the church looked like mannequins in shops, which reminded me some churches in South America.
