Madrid
Big-city energy, very good lunch habits.
Madrid is elegant without trying too hard: grand architecture, neighborhood bars, excellent museums and a lifestyle that somehow makes 10 p.m. dinner feel completely reasonable.
It’s polished where you want it to be, wonderfully scruffy where you don’t, and full of neighborhoods that feel like their own little worlds. If you want a serious capital city without the constant need to remind you that it’s a serious capital city, Madrid makes a very convincing case.