Trip Tips: Madrid

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Why Go Now October 30, 2007, will be remembered as the day when Madrid's nearly 200-year-old Prado Museum entered a new era. After more than a decade of planning and construction, and an outlay of $210 million, Spain's most revered cultural icon will unveil its 237,000-square-foot expansion, designed by Rafael Moneo. Once the purview of Spanish kings, who bought directly from Titian, Velázquez, Rubens, and Goya, the Prado has a collection long ranked among the world's finest. Moneo's extension adds galleries, an auditorium, restaurants, and a bookstore, and also embraces another Madrid landmark, the 17th-century cloister of the Jerónimo Church. Prado director Miguel Zugaza, who has overseen the trans­formation, notes enthusiastically: "It's time for Spain's principal cultural institution to face the future—and we're ready." Paseo del Prado; 34/90-210-7077; museodelprado.es.—Andrew Ferren

Stay Check in to the classic 167-room Hotel Ritz (5 Plaza de la Lealtad; 800/223-6800 or 34/91-701-6767; ritzmadrid.com; doubles from $665), the Prado's elegant neighbor. Its wood-paneled Velázquez bar is the ideal spot for a post-museum cocktail.

Eat Rub elbows with art-world insiders at Loft 39 (39 Velázquez; 34/91-432-4386; dinner for two $150), in an interior designed by Pascua Ortega. Try the tuna tartare with chive-flecked guacamole.

Don't Miss Zugaza suggests a Goya-centered tour: "Only in Madrid can you go from our masterpieces to those in the Real Academia de San Fernando, the Palacio Real, and the Church of San Antonio de la Florida, where the artist is buried." Book a tour through Made for Spain (34/91-310-7070; madeforspain.com).

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