Chamberí is the Madrid that doesn't perform for anyone — a 19th-century residential grid north of the centre, all wide streets, balconied flats and squares the locals actually use. It's the neighbourhood to walk when you want the city at its most everyday and elegant at once. Three and a half kilometres, best on a weekend morning when the vermut comes out.
Start on Plaza de Olavide, the octagonal square Chamberí treats as its garden, then walk down to Andén 0, the Metro station sealed up in 1966 and left exactly as it was — tilework, adverts, a museum of a vanished commute. Drift along the Chamberí stretch of Calle de Fuencarral for the unshowy shopfronts, and east toward the Sorolla museum, where the painter's garden spills over the wall onto the paseo.
Swing back for a vermut in one of the old tabernas — late morning, on tap, a plate of something salty alongside. End at Glorieta de Quevedo, named for the Golden Age satirist, with the Metro right there.
