Madrid

Madrid somehow feels small and big at the same time. It has the energy and cultural life of a capital, but everyday life happens at neighbourhood scale. Very quickly you have your café, your market, your favourite terrace, the streets you always take home.

What I notice: beautiful façades, balconies everywhere, generous streets, neighbourhood restaurants and plazas that work almost like shared living rooms. Madrid is elegant, but rarely intimidating. There is always life at street level.

More than almost any other large European city, Madrid feels comfortable. It lets you belong to it very quickly — less like a city you are visiting and more like somewhere you could simply live.