Royal Palace Madrid for Eight: the Clocks, the Sabatini Staircase

A maximum of eight people at a time. That cap is the operator's own decision, taken because they started out guiding at the Prado and concluded that a group any larger cannot be given a proper visit.

What the size buys is the small stuff. The Royal Palace is usually sold on its dimensions, and the numbers are easy to find: 3,418 rooms and so on. What a group of eight can actually stop for is the decoration. The clocks, for one. The Spanish crown collected them obsessively and they stand in room after room, gilt and enamel and mechanism, most of them still running.

The route takes the Hall of Columns, the Throne Room, and the great staircase designed by Francesco Sabatini, which is the piece of architecture the whole building was arranged around.

The guide works from the history of the Spanish monarchy across the centuries, which is the useful part of the visit: it explains the rest of the country as well, and travels with you for the rest of the trip.

The group meets at the equestrian statue of Philip IV in the middle of the Plaza de Oriente. Arrive 15 minutes early. Departures are punctual.