At the Prado, walk through European painting at its peak. Step into Spain's most celebrated museum and stand face-to-face with face-to-face with Velázquez's Las Meninas and feel why it's called the greatest painting in Western art, its gaze following you across the gallery. You'll stand quietly before Goya's Black Paintings, their darkness still startling two centuries on, and trace the drama of his The Third of May 1808. Turn a corner and Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights unfolds in dizzying detail, while El Greco, Titian and Rubens line the halls around you.

At the Reina Sofía, experience modern Spain through the art that shaped it. Everyone comes for one painting, and when you finally stand before Picasso's Guernica — vast and raw across an entire wall — you'll understand why no reproduction comes close. wander into the surreal worlds of Salvador Dalí, the bright playfulness of Joan Miró, and thought-provoking modern exhibitions that change through the year. Housed in a former hospital with a sleek glass extension, the Reina Sofía is as much about how art makes you feel as what it depicts.

At the Thyssen-Bornemisza, travel seven centuries in a single afternoon. One of the greatest private collections ever assembled takes you from glowing Renaissance portraits through to the room everyone remembers — Monet, Degas, Renoir and Van Gogh — before finishing among Picasso, Hopper and Lichtenstein. Compact, beautifully arranged and never overwhelming, it's the easiest of the three to savour.