Our home in Madrid

We now have an address: Calle Rosario 27, Madrid, Spain, 28005. After spending a dozen days on the search, we've found a place with a view to call home. Rosary Street: my Catholic grandmothers would be proud.

Our personal checklist of requirements and desires evolved during our search for apartments. We decided to find a flat of at least 65 square meters -- this seemed like a requirement. We decided that ample natural light was a necessity -- and this took several decent but dark flats out of the running. We hoped for a view of the city, but decided early-on that having a vista would have to stay on the list of desires but not needs. We knew that we needed to sleep well, and so the location of windows with relation to the city streets would be critical --  we toured many lovely neighborhoods where we were told that party-goers spill out of bars and onto the streets during the summer months. And we hoped for a place with two bedrooms -- thinking that we'd need a separate bedroom as an office and for our expected flood of visitors. But we eventually shifted that requirement to the list of niceties, realizing that there are some spectacular one-bedroom places in Madrid that we did not want to count out. So we check-listed our way through dozens of flats, adapting our standards all the way.

One of our primary tools for the search was the online marketplace known as Idealista. We learned that the pictures on the website were fairly true to life, and so we spent hours peering through the galleries and comparing them to the real-life places we had visited each day. On one sunny Sunday afternoon we made the hike across town to view a flat based solely upon the spectacular views that were shown on the website. It's located in the barrio known as La Latina, and the building is perched on the edge of a rim that runs for several kilometers along the Rio Manzanares. It's a quiet and traditional old neighborhood. It all looked too good to be true.

The Basilica of San Francisco el Grande 

and the distant Sierra de Guadarrama.

The flat is in a building is known as the Mirador de San Francisco, and it does indeed face the Royal Basilica of San Francisco el Grande, an 18th century Neoclassical Roman Catholic church. The story goes that St. Francis of Assisi came to Spain in 1214 on a pilgrimage to the tomb of Saint James in Santiago de Compostelo. He stopped long enough to build a modest home for his companions and himself where the church now stands. I can understand why he chose this scenic spot.

In 1760 the building was demolished to build a bigger church under the direction of Francisco Sabatini, the architect of the Royal Palace next door. The main dome of the church, the largest in Spain, is covered in frescoes, and the place is filled with large paintings, Renaissance carved marble pulpits, statues of the apostles, a French organ, and beautifully-carved choir chairs. The most famous of the paintings is the "St. Bernardine of Siena", by Francisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes. Goya included the church itself in several of his other works, including in the Prado's "La Pradera de San Isidro", showing the dome and bell towers rising above the city's skyline. The Franciscans still say mass everyday in the church.

The famous painting La pradera de San Isidro, painted by 
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes in 1788. 
It shows the Basilica across the Manzanares.

Back at the flat, we met Lucia, the leasing agent on the street, and were surprised to see that the building was nearly new. Newness was never on our list of requirements, and many of the flats we viewed during our search were in centuries-old buildings. We made our way up to the fourth floor with high hopes, and entered what was to become our new home. During that first viewing, we adapted our list of needs and wants one more time, swapping square footage for the view, and accepting that fact that we'd live in a succinct little one-bedroom place. It's scarcely 50 square meters, but it's a perfect apportioning of space.

Red tile roofs blanket the city.

The view includes the rooftops of tall buildings down on the riverbed below. It's decked out with sound-deadening double-pane glass doors with sturdy sealed shutters. We can see half the town and some of our favorite places from up there. But our decision was really made on the roof terrace, two floors up. It's a communal space, and it's outfitted with all-weather couches, tables, and chairs. There's a cold water shower for cooling down on warm summer days. We have visions of hanging out with the neighbors during the long summer nights. And the option of expanding into this grand outdoor space will make up for the coziness of our perfect little apartment.

That's our building on left, and our piso is up 
on the corner of the 4th floor. We've arrived!

As we scanned the horizon, we picked out even more landmarks: the Casa de Campo, Spain's largest urban park; the Sierra de Guadarrama, reaching almost 8000 feet and snow-covered on that February day; the Vicente Calderon Stadium, home of the La Liga football team Atlético Madrid; the Teleferico; the Cuatro Torres skyscrapers. And of course the Basilica, right there across the street.

Our new flat is smaller than some campsites I've found in my life. But the surrounding city is amongst the largest landscapes I've called home. Exploring that place will be our next project.

- Amy