Plaza Mayor is one of the most harmonious places in Madrid! It is an impressive 129 meters long and 94 wide. If you managed to avoid being distracted by the various portrait painters, acrobats, soap bubble blowers, or mannequin bullfighters and dancers, you've reached the best spot for appreciating this square's scenic monumentality, starting with this beautiful statue by Italian artists from the beginning of the 1600s.

The Royal Palace is one of the most fabled places in Madrid. You should know that long ago in the Muslim era, the mighty castle Alcázar stood tall in the northwestern part of the city's historical center. It was modified and expanded several times until a fire destroyed what remained of the ancient Arab fortress in 1734. Philip V then decided to rebuild a new Royal Palace from its foundations, while keeping the square shape of the building. The king favored the current French style so much that he indicated the Parisian Louvre building as the Palace's model, and brought architect Filippo Juvarra in from Italy who had created the Savoys' splendid late baroque residences in Turin. Many of the artists involved in the halls' decoration were Italian.

"El Retiro" is the real green lung of Madrid's city center! The park extends for more than 125 hectares, and is the favorite green space of Madrid's inhabitants. You can enjoy it as if it were a magnificent open-air museum.

The Gran Via is one of the most characteristic areas of Madrid! The idea of a Gran Vía, or a "Great Way" connecting the capital's new eastern districts with the western ones and going around the narrow and chaotic central streets came about in the mid 1800s, but it wasn't until the beginning of the next century that the project designed to turn Madrid into a modern, cosmopolitan, European city was finally approved.

The Prado Museum houses one of the most important art collections in the world. There's a saying in Madrid: you visit the Prado twice in your lifetime, first while holding your father's hand, then while holding your grandchild's. In reality, the museum is very loved and visited much more often by those living in Madrid.

The extraordinary private collection of Baron Heinrich Thyssen Bornemisza, the German steel magnate, which has been further enriched by his son Hans and daughter-in-law Carmen, is one of the world's most impressive and select private art collections, and is second only to the royal family's collection in England. The collection was started in the 1920s and consists of more than 1,300 works; at first it was dedicated solely to the old masters, but it gradually opened up to the painters of the early 1900s, and then to more recent artists as well.