One day in Miami: itinerary and highlights

Miami lines its Ocean Drive with the greatest concentration of Art Deco architecture in the United States, hundreds of buildings in pastel colours built in the thirties and now protected heritage.

Florida city overlooking the Atlantic, deeply marked by Cuban and Latin American culture, it offers in a single day beaches, street art and one of the country's most sumptuous residential neighbourhoods.

South Beach opens the dancing: the district overlooking the ocean, with its white sand and colored lifeguard towers, is joined by Ocean Drive, the avenue of Art Deco hotels lit by neon.

Climbing north you reach Wynwood, the former industrial district transformed into an open-air museum thanks to the Wynwood Walls, murals of street art signed by international artists on entire blocks.

Continuing you enter Little Havana, the Cuban district of the city, where on Calle Ocho you breathe Latin music, hand-rolled cigars, and domino games played in the street by the neighborhood's elderly.

For lunch, one of the restaurants in Little Havana offers ropa vieja and a Cuban coffee cortadito before resuming the city tour.

The Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, the villa in Italian Renaissance style overlooking Biscayne Bay, is surrounded by formal gardens built in the early twentieth century.

Bayside Marketplace, the covered market on the downtown waterfront, is instead the point from which tourist cruises depart along the bay with a view of Miami's skyline.

As evening falls, heading back to South Beach, the restaurants on Ocean Drive are the obvious place to dine, with the neon signs of Art Deco hotels glowing on the beach.

South Beach, Wynwood Walls, and Little Havana make the artistic and multicultural side of Miami evident, while an afternoon choice between Vizcaya and Bayside Marketplace flanks it with the historical or maritime side.

The Design District, with its luxury boutiques, and a trip to the Florida Keys remain chapters for a second journey. Watching the neon signs of Ocean Drive light up above the Art Deco facades at sunset is perhaps the clearest memory of Miami.