Milan

Milan is the city the rest of Italy slightly resents, which is a way of saying it is the city the rest of Italy depends on. This is the business capital that happens to dress like the style capital, the Quadrilatero della Moda runs its quiet rectangle of fashion houses a few streets from the Duomo, and Brera keeps its galleries and its evenings without ever raising its voice. Aperitivo here is not a drink before dinner; it is an institution, the hour the city negotiates its day down to a glass and a table. There is a tension to the place: work in the morning, theatre after dark, and Milan refuses to choose between them.

We fly here because Milan is the European weekend that earns its keep. During Salone del Mobile and Fashion Week the city fills and the whole point of it becomes visible at once; the rest of the year it's the quieter pleasure of having the place mostly to yourself. Some weekends are for switching off, and some are for the city that never quite does. Milan is the second kind, and unembarrassed about it.