This is a trip for people who want to understand Madrid rather than just photograph it. Over three days you'll move between world-class painting, royal architecture, Moorish relics and the kind of flamenco performance that actually earns its reputation — all within a city compact enough to walk between ideas.

Start on the Paseo del Arte. The Prado anchors the first morning with Velázquez and Goya in the rooms where they belong; the Reina Sofía handles the twentieth century, from Picasso's Guernica outward; the Thyssen-Bornemisza fills the gaps between them with a collection that would embarrass most national museums. Break away from the boulevard to spend a quiet hour at the Sorolla Museum, where the Valencian painter's studio-home feels less like an institution than a stopped clock.

Day two shifts to power and space. The Royal Palace is genuinely one of Europe's most extravagant interiors — the scale alone is worth the entrance. Walk west to the Temple of Debod, a working Egyptian temple transported stone by stone to a Madrid hilltop, for a late-afternoon that makes little logical sense and is better for it. End the evening on Plaza Mayor for a drink before heading to Corral de la Morería, where the flamenco show is rooted in serious technique rather than tourist theatre.

On day three, take the train to Toledo. An hour from Atocha station, it packs a Roman, Visigoth, Moorish and Christian history into a single ridge above the Tagus — a full day that reframes everything you've seen in the capital.