Its an image imprinted in everybody's mind: the background for hundreds of movies, ads and commercials. Actually standing on a saturday-night at Time Square, hearing dozens of different languages of tourists around you, and being fully emerged with the sounds and light, slightly frantic and crazy… You are in NY.

I’m a big fan of libraries (tons of books, free to take out, I mean what’s not to love?) and even though you can’t actually take out any books at the big beautiful library in Midtown – it’s still worth a visit. I love walking around in the big halls, the architecture is so beautiful and there’s always small exhibitions or things to see. Don’t forget to look up when entering the main reading-hall. Feels like book-heaven!

The oldest still-operating restaurant in New York City, still in the family of the original founders. At Christmastime, it's decorated to the nines. Go with a big group: portions are large and the wine flows liberally. Look for the little buttons on the walls: in the old days, the mafia would hang out in the back room, and if diners saw the cops come in, they'd press the buttons so the mafia guys could run out the back.

Needs no introduction.

When I first moved to New York, enamoured by its parks and museums and design firms and restaurants and bars, I never imagined that there could be much more to its geography than that. How wrong I was. My first drive across the George Washington Bridge was jaw-dropping - the cliffs of New Jersey are astonishingly tall, covered in a dense thicket of trees. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. Drive up 87 to the Catskills or the Adirondacks and you'll witness the Hudson River winding its way through spectacular scenery and unforgiving seasons. Now I can't get enough; just two hours up the road, it's like the city never existed. Perfect recuperation after a long week.