Royal Palace of Madrid: the Throne Room, Goya and Giordano

A guided visit with the ticket queue skipped, starting with a walk across the Plaza de Oriente before going in.

Inside, the route covers the Throne Room, the banqueting hall and the private royal apartments. The painting is the reason to have a guide rather than an audio guide: Luca Giordano on the ceilings, Goya on the walls, and a collection of tapestries, armour and worked swords that most visitors walk past without knowing what they are looking at.

The building itself is the other subject. It is the largest inhabited palace in Europe, and although the royal family lives elsewhere, this remains their official residence and the setting for state ceremonies. Construction ran until 1764, and Carlos III was the first king to move in. What he moved into was 135,000 square metres, 3,418 rooms, 870 windows, 240 balconies and 44 staircases. Filippo Juvarra's original design was never built, and what stands is the version that replaced it.

Outside there are the 19th-century facades and the flower gardens.

One instruction that matters: the guide waits inside the souvenir shop with a Golden Tour Guide sign. Do not go straight to the palace entrance.