REVIEWS OF CASA MOSAICA APARTMENT IN GAUCIN
Photo by Christopher Pressler
From: Charlevoix, Michigan USA
Date of Stay: October 2011
If you're looking for the perfect place to stay in Andalusia, don't miss the village of Gaucin and don't miss Casa Mosaica. The accommodations (two beautiful bedrooms and baths, living room and full kitchen) coupled with beautiful gardens and a lovely swimming pool, are sure to please. Casa Mosaica is in easy walking distance to several nice restaurants, tavernas, banks and a grocery store. Located just off the main highway, it's easy to drive to (without having to drived the village's narrow streets). Ample parking is located just ouside the home. It a great location to make "day trips" to places like Malaga, Marbella, Tanrifa/Tanger, and Ronda. Owner Emma Cornish was most helpful prior to our arrival and during our entire stay. Other than the road from Estepona (off the E15) up to Gaucin, which is in serious need of resurfacing, most roads, like the one to Ronda, are in excellent condition. If your looking for a great way to enjoy Spain's Pueblos Blancos, don't miss the Casa Mosaica in Gaucin!
Photo by Christopher Pressler
From: Ulrika M. Mariefred, Sweden
Date of Stay: September 2011
My husband and I are running a B&B in Sweden and work hard the whole summer. We always go somewhere in late september to rest and "charge our batteries". Casa Mosaica and Gaucin was the most perfect place for this. Wounderful and peaceful setting, great house, well equipped kitchen, comfortable bedrooms and beds! Beautiful garden, pool and patio. Great location perfect for daytours to Ronda and Costa del Sol. Emma (the owner) is really easygoing and helpfull. Our son aged 13 came along with his best friend and they had a great time aswell. And the best of all, just across the street there is a supermarket that provided us with all that we needed to make great breakfasts, lunches and dinners. For me there is no relaxation to eat at resturants every night. I could easy have stayed on for a couple of weeks!
Photo by Christopher Pressler
From:Cherie, Newton,NJ
Date of Stay: September 2011
Gaucin is one of the most beautiful little hill towns. We wanted to be located where we could have the time to experience the Spanish culture and be close enough to see some of the important sites.Casa Mosaica was beautiful and in the center of it all. Emma was the most cordial host and provided all the details to get the most of our vacation.
We were able to be in Ronda within fourty five minutes,the coast in half an hour and we even managed a trip to Tangiers with Emma's help.
Photo by Christopher Pressler
From: Mike, Cirencester
Date of Stay: August 2011
Casa Mosaica is a stunning property, totally private and away from public view and yet minutes from the facilities offered in Gaucin. The owner, who lives on site, couldn't have been more helpful and enabled us to relax and enjoy the garden, mosaics and pool she has created.
Being able to buy supplies at short notice from the many locals shops was a boon as were the numerous cafes and restaurants within walking distance. Preparing meals was easy given the abundance of local fresh produce and well-appointed kitchen. The property was spotless and the rooms tastefully furnished. The swimming pool was excellent and there was a large terraced area for sun-bathing and table tennis.
There was always somewhere you could sun bathe but equally there were several shaded areas to avoid the mid-day heat - we particularly liked the garden/patio area adjacent to the lounge - comfortable seating and tables for taking refreshments or reading.The sound of the water from the fountain and outdoor mosaics adding to the sense of peace.
A perfect retreat for anyone wanting to "switch off" - so much so that it was a wrench to muster the energy to visit nearby sites such as Ronda or Gibraltar!
Photo by Christopher Pressler
From: Christopher Pressler, Cambridge / United Kingdom
Date of Stay: July 2011
Casa Mosaica is a very special place to stay. I have travelled all over the world and stayed in some fantastic places (perhaps the only other that comes close is a hotel in Kuala Lumpur), but this remarkable house in the almost immeasurably historic town of Gaucin will, I doubt, ever be beaten. The interior design is so rich and inventive that, if the owner was not so welcoming, you would almost not believe you had been given the chance to stay in it. There are endless attractions for all ages in the area, perhaps the most authentic of Spanish regions, and the pool is great for cooling off. However, it is to the house that the mind always returns, its details, its surprises, the beautiful garden. This is a house that offers both excitement and peace, aesthetic energy and reflection. It is an astonishing achievement and must be experienced.
Photo by Christopher Pressler
From: Ruby, Belgium
Date of Stay: June 2011
A fantastic village property, oozing style and charm but not lacking in any of the creature comforts required for a great holiday. The discrete exterior cannot prepare you for the lush garden hidden behind the high wall. The beautiful and stunning mosaics, both interior and exterior, blend effortlessly to create a truly magical place to relax and unwind. The owner is a delight and has created a splendid home away from home that won’t disappoint. A joyful place to take a holiday.
Photo by Christopher Pressler
From: Ben, United Kingdom
Date of Stay: April 2010
We had the most wonderful stay at the Casa Mosaica at Easter time. The house is beautiful, full of wonderful things, and beautifully decorated. Obviously mosaics are everywhere. Although evening temperatures were chilly at that time of year, the house is very cosy with wood burning stoves and fires. Semana Santa is a fantastic time to visit Spain, and the people of Gaucin enjoy it all, from running the bulls, to the nightly religious processions. Emma Cornish is a fabulous hostess, with a wealth of local knowledge, and is fluent in Spanish, which can be a great help. She is very helpful in giving advice on eating out, cultural visits, local walks, and trips to Morocco. The pool is great, though only warm enough for children at Easter, the garden is lovely, and Gaucin fascinating. Highly recommended.
Spain is a country of the mind. It conjures up images of pure energy and perhaps joy. The bullfight releases an intensity in the audience of awe and fear, of a deliberate attempt by the Matador to cheat death. The colours of the Tapas on a heated summer evening reflect the sky. The red and yellow of herbed pork with collapsing sliced peppers turns to cooler blue in fish as the air drops. The relief of a late meal without the sun.
On the coast, sat under white parasols the sea reaches the beaches in brilliant white waves, glinting like over-exposed photographs being taken again and again. Large gulls fly low across the bays, exploiting the warm air from the water, not moving their wings but still achieving speed. On the shopping strips the famous and those who enjoy appearing with them dip in and out of names from London, New York and Paris, before chasing the gulls into the mountains in Ferraris.
Up there, in the haze of peaks and snake roads you first see the Pueblo Blancos, the white villages clinging to cliffs like goats. They are in the distance for what seems like hours as the car wills itself to make the ascent. Looking back, across the ravines to the Med the great nautical pyramid of Gibraltar juts upwards, and beyond it the line of Africa. Nowhere else can another continent appear from the sea like a fiction.
The last corner the last bend the final twist in the road and in its shocking white, Gaucin, its ancient castellated casas are in view. For thousands of years the height of this place has given refuge and sometimes failed. A flashpoint between religion and royalties, between beliefs and ideologies. Phoenicians, Romans, Visigoths, Moors - the horror of Civil War. All have come here for safety or a fight, or gold. Gaucin, ‘hard rock’ is a museum of violence and beauty turned now into happiness.
Simply because it sits so temptingly the town has been a prize. To control Gaucin meant to rule these mountains. To visit it now means to govern memories.
We follow the streets up to our destination. The streets with their aching houses, held up it seems only by the heat. A child peers through the common door blinds. She is dark, beautiful, quiet. Her pink dress floats in the relieving wind of the hills and then, with a blink of white eyes she vanishes. We have travelled this morning from England, a country for so long in competition with Spain for land and ocean. Now, we only need respite from work, from commuter trains, from rain.
The final hill and the car slides into a space opposite our house for this week. Casa Mosaica is on top of the town. Outside it is a long white shadow in the haze as we collect our bags from the car. Its name emblazoned beside the door the only hint at the wonder inside. We wait. Five minutes in Spain is nothing. A local friend runs down the hill with keys and introductions. An artist. I find her immediately special and engaging as she shows us into the house. She is of my other life as an imaginative person. The life that is within. The sustaining existence beyond the deadlines, away from the platforms of King’s Cross.
Inside Casa Mosaica the cool silhouettes of the house, stunning shapes, perfect proportions, and the coordination of colours leave us standing for a moment in silence. Seeing this house for the first time is like holding Faberge. It is an authentic experience. It is a shock. It is moving.
As we walk around the effect is cumulative. Red corridors and brass, darkly glinting. The calmest choice of greens in quiet rooms. High windows onto a garden of pools and reflections. Long terraces under reeds to hide the sun. Polished plaster bathrooms in a colour swept from the sea floor. A bright blue swimming pool viewed through solitary Agapanthus. Generous wine glasses. The kindness of particular breads. The creaking of crickets calling. Cumulative in its detail and care. Casa Mosaica is an achievement of mind over matter, just as are the millions of tiny colours which have created it. We are here.
Yet, I write this back in Cambridge. Spain is a country of the mind. Its images so strong that they are permanent gifts. That house and the country which surrounds it will always be with me.