8AM: Wake up in the historic core of old, royal Madrid, at the Gran Meliá Palacio de Los Duques. This luxury hotel was indeed a ducal palace, and the room designs draw on the artworks of 17th-century court painter Diego Velázquez.

10AM: Shop for fine Spanish wine, vermouth, chorizo and Manchego cheese (all of which you can try before you buy) at Donde Sánchez, a tiny, friendly independent deli and bodega inside the Mercado Antón Martín.

11AM: Have a mid-morning chocolate y churros at Café Comercial, where the walls are illuminated with quotes from Madrileño poet Rafael Soler. First opened in 1887, the place had a full facelift in 2017, though the café’s spirit (and much of the old-time interior) remains unchanged.

NOON : Watch master luthiers at work in Felipe Conde Guitarrero, owned and run by the Conde family since 1915. Having made classical Spanish guitars for the likes of Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and flamenco legend Camarón de la Isla, their name remains synonymous with craft and artistry.

1PM : Behold Picasso’s masterpiece, Guernica, at the Reina Sofía museum. The room housing that mesmeric protest-painting – a frozen moment of chaos inspired (or provoked) by the bombing of the titular Basque town in 1937 – is usually quietest around lunchtime.

2PM : Pause for lunch at Sacha, where namesake owner Sacha Hormaechea has presided for decades over the Basque-Galician bistro founded by his parents. On hot afternoons, Madrid’s powerbrokers retreat to its lovely urban courtyard for sea urchin lasagne or a jowl and truffle “sandwich”.

4PM: Retreat to the Spanish Golden Age at the Casa Museo Lope de Vega, the restored home of the great 17th-century poet and playwright. The courtyard garden, with its orange tree grown from the roots of de Vega’s own, is a peaceful corner of a bygone Madrid.

6PM: Snap up handmade floral and fauna-themed jewellery and bags at AndresGallardo. Gallardo and Marina Casal went from recycling antique porcelain pieces to making limited-edition prototypes where lions and panthers cohabit in perfect harmony – and revived Spanish artisan traditions in the process.

7PM: Swing to the roof of the Círculo de Bellas Artes for a gin and tonic as the day begins to fade. The vast rooftop bar offers some of the best views of Madrid, and from a building where Pablo Picasso once took art lessons no less.

9PM : Get lost amid the backstreet taperías of La Latina: make your way from bar, to tavern, to restaurant in the atmospheric barrio that has served for centuries as a casual dining quarter. Start with sherry and sardines at Bodegas Ricla, end with bull’s tail stew at Casa Lucio.