Malaga and Ronda

In this episode, Michael starts off in the coastal city of Malaga. The touchdown pad for millions of Brits who holiday on the Costa del Sol each year, most head straight out and along the coast, but to Michael's mind, this is missing out on what Andalucia's second largest city has to offer.

Michael arrives mid-summer for one of the biggest street parties in Spain: August's feria. First, he meets a street band most of whose members are called Portillo, before heading to El Pimpi, a bar that opened in the 1970s and has become the place to be seen ever since.

Michael first visited Malaga aged 12 when his aunt was a nun, and he returns to the monastery where she lived to meet with one of the girl's his aunt taught in the 1950s. From Malaga, Michael heads 40 miles inland to the incredible hilltop town of Ronda stopping off en route at a vineyard.

In the late 19th century, one third of Spain's wine industry was wiped out by a plague of aphids including this one. Now replanted, Michael helps with the harvest and becomes one of the first people to taste a wine made from a grape which was thought to have been extinct until it was re-discovered growing wild.

Michael meets Michelin starred chef Benito Gomez who believes the produce from the surrounding area is unrivalled anywhere else in Spain. Before dinner, Benito takes Michael to meet one of his suppliers who specialises in an extraordinary range of lards which are eaten spread on toast for breakfast.

Michael's stay ends at a convent dating back to the 16th century where he meets the mother superior and discovers they hold one of the Catholic church's most important relics: the hand of Saint Teresa.