Antwerp

four Rubens masterpieces — including the towering Descent from the Cross and Raising of the Cross

the painter's own Italian-inspired studio-mansion and garden, mid-redevelopment into a grander museum for his 450th anniversary

a ten-storey red-sandstone-and-glass landmark on the old docks telling Antwerp's story as a port and world city — with a free rooftop panorama

the only museum inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in its own right

a few blocks beside Central Station through which ~84% of the world's rough diamonds pass

the fashion museum on Nationalestraat that tells how a handful of Royal Academy graduates — the Antwerp Six

the river promenade and Het Steen as the light turns, then the floodlit cathedral tower and Grote Markt guild houses

a stylish stay in one of Antwerp's boutique or five-star houses, a fashion-district stroll and, for the occasion, a diamond bought at the source

hearty Flemish cooking — stoverij, mussels, grey-shrimp croquettes — with a bolleke of the local De Koninck amber ale, in a wood-panelled café

Antwerp chocolatiers, the local Antwerpse handjes biscuits and chocolates, and the herbal Elixir d'Anvers liqueur — edible souvenirs on a tasting walk

begin under the golden dome of the "railway cathedral," then walk the reborn Eilandje docklands to the MAS and the river