🇮🇹 Naples → 🇵🇱 Warsaw · 2 weeks

The POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews on Mordechaja Anielewicza is one of the finest history museums built anywhere in the last 20 years — the permanent exhibition takes 3-4 hours to do properly. Book tickets online and go on a weekday morning when it's quietest.

Go to the top of the Palace of Culture and Science (Pałac Kultury) for the viewing terrace — the reason Warsaw looks best from here is that it's the one place in the city the Palace doesn't dominate the skyline. The Soviet-gift-to-Poland history makes the view stranger and more interesting than it would otherwise be.

Hala Koszyki (ul. Koszykowa 63) is a restored 1908 market hall now housing Warsaw's best collection of independent food vendors and restaurants — go for a weekday lunch when it's full of local office workers rather than tourist groups, and try the bar serving Polish-Asian fusion from Youmiko.

Every Sunday from May to September, free Chopin piano concerts take place in the Łazienki Park at the Chopin monument (noon and 4pm). Bring a blanket — the park itself is enormous, beautiful, and full of peacocks.