I’m feeling totally burnt out after a long summer of hard work, and I want like indulging myself with a spa break. I was thinking that I’d get the best autumn sunshine in the Canaries, but I don’t know much about the islands beyond the budget tourist hotspots. Are there any truly luxurious spa hotels where I can relax, and what kind of treatments are on offer?

Madeleine Parnell, Oban

Located in the south of Gran Canaria and set amongst the beautiful scenery of Salobre Golf Resort, Sheraton Salobre incorporates the natural setting of the south of the island into its beautiful architectural design. Overlooking both the blue Atlantic and the green of a first class golf course, the hotel’s centrepiece is its exquisite Aloe Spa, the perfect place for Madeleine to unwind and be pampered during her holiday.

The Torres family was not very football-oriented. It was not one of those Spanish families glued to the radio listening to live match commentaries, nor was it one of those where, when there was a big match, all the relatives and friends joined together to experience the event. The only real fan was the grandfather, a lifelong rojiblanco or supporter of Atlético Madrid, and a young Fernando Torres followed in his footsteps.

“I think you are born and Atlético person,” says Fernando, talking to a crowded gathering at the Marca Sports Forum. “There aren’t very many people who become fans of the red-and-whites on the way. Kids see Real Madrid winning and it’s one of the giants, so they become fans. In my class I was the only Atlético supporter out of 30 children.

Approaching Ronda from the west, the city appears first as a white line of buildings set along a distant ridge. The road runs smoothly across the plain, then gains height with some sharp bends before delivering you into this ancient city.

I was hungry when I got to Ronda. We had been enjoying a leisurely day driving around the white hilltop villages on the border between the provinces of Malaga and Cadiz. Now it was time to find our way through the grid of streets to book a room and track down the source of the delicious cooking smells that wafted around every corner.

On the slopes high above the town of Baena, brothers Don Paco and Don Felipe Núñez de Prado give me a grand tour of their olive groves. The pride they take in the organic cultivation of their trees is clear to see.

“The healthier the trees, the better the oil,” Paco tells me. A charming and dapper man, he heads a family business that has been producing oil for seven generations at the same mill in Baena.

 He explains the care they take at every stage of growing, harvesting and pressing the olives, in order to perform the age-old alchemy of turning these small black fruit into liquid gold. This is his passion. A passion that results in Núñez de Prado producing some of the finest olive oil in the world. An oil for the best-dressed salads, for drizzling and dipping.