Hemingway famously wrote that "Ronda is the place where to go, if you are planning to travel to Spain for a honeymoon or for being with a girlfriend. The whole city and its surroundings are a romantic set. ... Nice promenades, good wine, excellent food, nothing to do." He especially loved Ronda and also stayed here for some time, with it serving as inspiration for his work. Hemingway wrote several books concerning Spain such as For Whom the Bell Tolls (about the Spanish civil war) and The Sun Also Rises (about bullfighting in Spain). Now there is a bust of Hemingway in Paseo de Blas Infante and a Paseo named in his honour.
Orson Welles once wrote “A man does not belong to the place he was born in, but to the place he chooses to die.” Welles loved the people of Spain and the culture and he was particularly captivated by Ronda, where he became friends with some of the most famous bullfighters of the era, such as Antonio Ordoñez. His wishes to have his ashes kept in a well on the land of his friend Antonio Ordóñez in the outskirts of Ronda shows just how much Ronda meant to Welles. Now there is a bust of Welles in Paseo de Blas Infante and a Paseo named in his honour, just like Hemingway.
Arguably the best-known German poet, Rainer Maria Rilke left Paris in 1912 and came to Spain, ending up visiting Ronda almost by accident. Here he stayed in the Hotel Reina Victoria, overcame his writers block and wrote poems such as The Spanish trilogy which wasn't published until after his death.
Ronda was an inspiration for James Joyce, who wrote at the end of his masterpiece Ulysses "… and Ronda with the old windows of the posadas glancing eyes a lattice hid for her lover to kiss the iron and the wineshops half open at night and the castanets...”
On August 7th 2010, the former first lady of the United States visited Ronda along with her daughter Sasha. They first visited the Casa don Bosco, and then walked to the Church of Santa María la Mayor. After that they visited the gardens of Casa del Rey Moro where they walked down the many steps to the old Moorish water mine. They then ate at Del Escudero restaurant, next to the Plaza del Toros. After eating, they visited the Plaza del Toros and moved on to their next destination of Marbella.