Madrid rose from rural obscurity to become the Spanish capital in the second half of the 16th century. Today its vitality and character rarely fail to captivate visitors. As the highest capital in Europe, it is baking in summer and freezing in winter, but it is the vast, azure, cumulus-clouded sky, immortalised in the paintings of Velázquez, that no visitor forgets.

It is a city of great monuments and grand avenues with a huge appetite for art, music and epicurean pleasure. There are more paintings in Madrid than anyone can reasonably hope to see in a lifetime. But Madrid is not just a cultural destination. In no other European capital will you find the city centre so busy so late into the night. To experience Madrid is to explore its thousands of restaurants, prop up its countless bars and be swept up in the nocturnal madness of its music scene and clubs.