The madrileños are wont to describe Madrid’s climate as ‘nueve meses de invierno, tres meses de infierno’ (‘nine months of winter, three months of hell’) and, well, yes, it can get fairly toasty in summer, as a result of which the locals tend to abandon the city in droves, leaving it a ghost town. The council has set about trying to change all that, laying on a banquet of cultural offerings from street parties to jazz concerts as part of its ‘Summer in the City’ programme. For more information, see www.munimadrid.es.

The fun really kicks off, though, when the city takes to the streets for the festival of its patron saint, San Isidro, in mid May. The action centres on the Plaza Mayor, where there are nightly gigs (and sometimes classical concerts during the day), but there are plenty of performances and religious ceremonies all over town. More of the same happens in August for the ‘Verbenas’ of various saints, when the streets and squares of the old Lavapiés, Rastro and La Latina neighbourhoods are dolled up with flowers and bunting, and the locals don their traditional gear for some serious street partying. San Cayetano is first, on 7 August, followed by San Lorenzo on the 10th and La Paloma on the 15th. Daytime sees parades and events for kids, by night there is live music, organ grinders, traditional chotis dancing, the aroma of grilled chorizo and churros, sangría by the bucketful and a lot of good, clean fun well into the night.

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