Madrid

Madrid is now officially one of the "greenest" cities in Europe, with verdant areas springing up every year thanks to an ecologically aware town hall. The Retiro, with its flowers, fountains, and boat-filled lake, and the huge Casa del Campo moorland, with its copses and bird life, are the city's twin lungs, aided by the regular flow of pure mountain air from the Guadarramas 60 miles away. Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón's improvement plans also cover the planting of hundreds of thousands of trees in newly created green zones -- intersected by walking and cycling lanes -- both in and around the city. His Manzanares River development is particularly ambitious, with both river and M-30 highway running underground while the surface becomes a pedestrianized parkland that connects with the Casa del Campo. (In summer 2006 the crusading mayor also launched a battle against "light pollution" by announcing a future ban on practically all neon lights in the city center, so that Madrileños would be able to see the stars on cloudless nights.)

In a sense, the Spanish capital hasn't changed at all: It has always been an awesome blend of tradition and dynamism. At its heart is the vintage Madrid of Los Austrias, the Plaza Mayor, and the Palacio Real, still exuding centuries-old atmosphere and ringed in turn by regenerated castizo (traditional) districts like Chueca, Malasaña, and Lavapiés (the latter's population epitomizing the new ethnically varied Madrid). The San Isidro and Virgen de la Almudena fiestas are celebrated with their customary color and vigor. Shopping, dining, and cultural options are plentiful and remarkably varied. And the spontaneous nonstop lifestyle continues to thrive, with bars (more than 18,000 of them) opening from 5:30am onwards for coffee and churros and closing late (or never shutting at all if you include the after-hours bars), and weekend dawn traffic jams of cars and night buses blocking the city thoroughfares as revelers weave their way to, from, or between their favorite spots.

Highlight of this city:

The Prado
With more than 7,000 paintings, the Prado is one of the most important repositories of art in the world. It began as a royal collection and was enlarged by the Habsburgs, especially Charles V, and later the Bourbons. In paintings of the Spanish school the Prado has no equal; on your first visit, concentrate on the Spanish masters (Velázquez, Goya, El Greco, and Murillo).

Major Italian works are exhibited on the ground floor. Italian masters -- Raphael, Botticelli, Mantegna, Andrea del Sarto, Fra Angelico, and Correggio are found here. The most celebrated Italian painting is Titian's voluptuous Venus being watched by a musician who can't keep his eyes on his work.

The Prado is a trove of the work of El Greco (ca. 1541-1614), the Crete-born artist who lived much of his life in Toledo. On display are a parade of "The Greek's" saints, Madonnas, and Holy Families -- even a ghostly John the Baptist.

A splendid array of works by the incomparable Diego Velázquez (1599-1660) is exhibited. The museum's most famous painting, in fact, is his Las Meninas, a triumph in the use of light effects. The faces of the queen and king are reflected in the mirror in the painting itself. The artist in the foreground is Velázquez, of course.

The Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), who met Velázquez while in Spain, is represented by the peacock-blue Garden of Love and by the Three Graces. Also noteworthy is the work of José Ribera (1591-1652), a Valencia-born artist and contemporary of Velázquez whose best painting is the Martyrdom of St. Philip. The Seville-born Bartolomé Murillo (1617-82) -- often referred to as the "painter of Madonnas" -- has three Immaculate Conceptions on display.

The Prado has an outstanding collection of the work of Hieronymus Bosch (1450?-1516), the Flemish genius. The Garden of Earthly Delights, the best-known work of "El Bosco," is here as well as his Seven Deadly Sins and his triptych The Hay Wagon. See also The Triumph of Death, by another Flemish painter, Pieter Breughel the Elder (ca. 1525-69), who carried on Bosch's ghoulish vision.

Francisco de Goya (1746-1828) ranks along with Velázquez and El Greco in the trio of great Spanish artists. Hanging here are his unflattering portraits of his patron, Charles IV, and his family, as well as the Clothed Maja and the Naked Maja. You can also see the much-reproduced Third of May (1808), plus a series of Goya sketches (some of which, depicting the decay of 18th-c. Spain, brought the Inquisition down on the artist) and his expressionistic "black paintings."