Madrid, Spain — Bella Via Travels
Spain
Madrid
The capital that never sleeps
Madrid is the capital that Spain built to be the centre of an empire — and the art collection that resulted from that empire is the finest in the world.
The Prado is the reason most visitors come, and it justifies every hour spent in it: Velazquez's Las Meninas, Goya's Black Paintings, the Bosch triptychs, the Titian portraits — a collection that traces the entire arc of Spanish and European painting from the fifteenth century to the nineteenth. The Reina Sofia, with Picasso's Guernica, and the Thyssen-Bornemisza, with its extraordinary range of European painting, complete a triangle of museums that is unequalled anywhere in the world.
The tapas culture of Madrid is among the finest in Spain — the bars of La Latina, the Mercado de San Miguel, the Mercado de San Anton and the restaurants of the Malasana and the Chueca are all expressions of a food culture that takes eating seriously without taking itself too seriously.
The Retiro park, the Palacio Real, the Plaza Mayor and the Puerta del Sol are all within walking distance of each other, and all are best experienced in the early morning or the late evening, when the city is at its most itself. Bella Via designs Madrid itineraries that combine the art with the food and the particular pleasure of a city that never quite goes to sleep.
“The Prado on a Tuesday morning, with Las Meninas to yourself and the light coming through the windows — that is the Madrid we want to show you.”
What to Expect
The Bella Via Experience in Madrid
The Prado
The finest art museum in the world — Velazquez, Goya, Bosch and Titian, in a building of neoclassical grandeur.
The Reina Sofia
Picasso's Guernica and the finest collection of twentieth-century Spanish art in the world, in a converted hospital of considerable elegance.
La Latina & The Tapas Bars
The most atmospheric neighbourhood in Madrid — cobbled streets, medieval churches and tapas bars that have been serving the same dishes for generations.
El Rastro
Madrid's great Sunday flea market — a kilometre of stalls selling everything from antiques to second-hand books, with the tapas bars of La Latina open behind.
Madrid rewards those who arrive with time and leave with a deeper understanding of what the art of living well actually means.