Michael Portillo’s Long Weekends | Preview (Channel 5)
Join Michael Portillo as he takes us on a Long Weekend to three of his favourite European cities: Madrid, Prague and Milan.
On each Long Weekend Michael searches out la dolce vita, discovering each city’s best restaurants, bars, food markets and hotels. He explores hidden neighbourhoods off the tourist trail and goes behind-the-scenes of major landmarks. Royal palaces, cathedrals, galleries, and museums, all open their doors and welcome us in.
In each city Michael meets up with locals with a particular connection to that place, who show him the city’s treasures and secrets. Most are English speaking and introduce him to something they’re passionate about: the city’s rich history, diverse architecture and food heritage, and its local crafts and customs.
In the first episode, Michael Portillo takes us on a Long Weekend to one of his favourite European cities: the vibrant and bustling Spanish capital, Madrid. Home to over three million people, the Spanish Parliament and one of the world’s most successful football teams, it welcomes nearly 10 million visitors every year.
A short flight from the UK, Madrid - renowned as a city that never sleeps - is somewhere Michael knows well having visited it since he was a boy. His weekend begins in the city centre on the busy Gran Via boulevard which connects the city’s east end, home to Madrid’s famous Golden Triangle of art museums and El Retiro Park, with the western side, where the opulent Royal Palace sits.
Michael heads for an early lunch at a restaurant he knows well in the Old Town. Madrid is home to around 10,000 restaurants, and this institution was founded in 1725 making it the world’s oldest restaurant with a wood-fired oven that hasn’t gone out in 300 years, apparently. There’s only one dish on the menu: suckling pig.
For the adventurous there are plenty of surprises in store. Hotel bars with a history of espionage, a traditional confectioner who makes a classic Spanish nougat, and a bespoke tailor specialising in a very stylish cape, all come into play.
For the culture vultures, Madrid doesn’t disappoint either. Michael goes behind-the-scenes of the opera house, El Teatro Real, open to the public seven days a week. He visits one of the world’s greatest art collections, and finds time for the Royal Palace, one of Europe’s largest with almost 3,500 rooms, many of which are open to the public. Perfect on a Long Weekend getaway.
Michael also enjoys an Ecuadorian feast in the bohemian neighbourhood of Malasaňa, and a fantastic seafood lunch, grilled fresh over charcoal, in a little-known suburb outside the centre.
In between the hustle and bustle, Michael finds time to relax in the inner-city oasis that is El Retiro Park, once exclusive to the king and royal court, before squeezing in a visit to the family flat where he stayed as a boy in the years after the Spanish Civil War.
Michael Portillo’s Long Weekends begins Friday 19th April at 9pm on Channel 5.