Madison is the capital of Wisconsin and the most pleasant small city in the upper Midwest — a university town of about 270,000 people squeezed onto a narrow isthmus between two lakes, with the Wisconsin State Capitol at one end and the University of Wisconsin at the other. The whole of downtown fits on the isthmus, which makes it unusually walkable, and State Street, the pedestrianised mile that links the Capitol to the University, is one of the nicest downtown streets in America — a continuous run of bookshops, coffee places, student bars, ice-cream parlours and live-music venues.
The Wisconsin State Capitol, a National Historic Landmark, is modelled on the U.S. Capitol in Washington and is the only state capitol in the country built of granite. Its enormous dome is the fifth-largest in the world and the only one topped by a figure (Wisconsin, the gilded bronze at the summit). Free tours run throughout the day, and the building is genuinely impressive inside. The Monona Terrace, the convention centre at the south edge of downtown overlooking Lake Monona, was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1938 and finally built in 1997; its rooftop garden is a particularly good free view. On Saturday mornings from spring to autumn, the Dane County Farmers' Market — one of the largest producer-only farmers' markets in the country — encircles the Capitol and is a ritual for much of the city.
The University of Wisconsin campus spreads along the south shore of Lake Mendota, with the Memorial Union Terrace (sunburst-yellow and orange deckchairs facing the water) one of the most beloved public spaces in the state on a summer evening. The free Chazen Museum of Art and the UW-Madison Geology Museum are both on campus. Madison is a notoriously bikeable city, with over 200 km of bike paths, and a reliably good food scene that punches well above its size — the cheese, obviously, but also farm-to-table places, lively Southeast Asian and Mexican neighbourhoods, and some of the best craft beer in the Midwest. The Henry Vilas Zoo and the University of Wisconsin Arboretum give the south side of the city its own draw. Not a destination most foreign travellers go out of their way for, but one of the great small American cities if you find yourself nearby.