Community of Madrid

A Museum Quarter That Means Business

The Paseo del Arte contains three of the finest art museums on the planet within comfortable walking distance of each other, which is either a gift or an act of cruelty depending on how your feet are holding up. The Prado holds Velázquez, Goya and Bosch in quantities that make other museums look like gift shops. The Reina Sofía shelters Picasso's Guernica behind a ramp of modernist concrete. The Thyssen-Bornemisza fills in everything in between across eight centuries of European painting. Beyond the golden triangle, the city keeps going: the Retiro park unfolds like a green sigh in the middle of everything, the glass-and-iron Crystal Palace reflecting the sky above a pond where herons stand in judgement of passing joggers.

Food, Nights and the Art of Going Out Late

Madrid eats late and stays up later, a schedule that initially alarms visitors and then becomes impossible to give up. Dinner before nine-thirty is considered optimistic, lunch is a full and unhurried affair, and the city's tapas culture rewards those who learn to navigate the bars of La Latina or Malasaña with a glass in hand and no particular destination in mind. The Mercado de San Miguel packages this tradition in a wrought-iron market hall for those who prefer their culinary exploration with a ceiling, while the city's churrerías do a brisk trade in the small hours, serving hot chocolate to people who cannot decide if they are finishing a night out or starting a morning. Alcalá de Henares to the east brings the birthplace of Cervantes and a medieval festival of remarkable commitment.

Mountains, Monasteries and the Wider Region

The Sierra de Guadarrama rises to the north and west of the city with the abruptness of a stage flat, its granite peaks turning white from November onwards and hosting ski resorts close enough for a day trip. El Escorial crouches against the foothills in magnificent austerity, a monastery-palace-mausoleum complex built by Philip II to remind everyone including God that he was serious. Aranjuez sits further south where the Tagus and Jarama rivers meet, its royal palace surrounded by formal gardens and a strawberry season celebrated each spring with a procession of costumed courtiers aboard a vintage train from the capital. The entire region was formally established as an autonomous community in 1983 and has since grown into one of Europe's most visited corners, a place where the art of living well has been practised for long enough that it no longer requires any effort at all.