MÁLAGA seems at first an uninviting place. It's the second city of the south (after Sevilla), with a population of half a million, and is also one of the poorest: official unemployment figures for the area estimate the jobless at one in four of the workforce. Yet though many people get no further than the train or bus stations, and though the clusters of high-rises look pretty grim as you approach, it has its attractions. The elegant central zone has a number of interesting churches and museums, not to mention the birthplace of Picasso and the new Picasso Museum , housing an important collection of works by Málaga's most famous son. Around the old fishing villages of El Palo and Pedregalejo , now absorbed into the suburbs, are a series of small beaches and a paseo lined with some of the best fish and seafood cafés in the province. And overlooking the town and port are the formidable Moorish citadels of the Alcazaba and Gibralfaro - excellent introductions to the architecture before pressing on to the main sites at Córdoba and Granada.