At first glance, Belgium’s second city (after Brussels), is a relatively low-key experience with no iconic landmarks, nor any immediate associations to place it in the mainstream tourist psyche. It’s a buzzing town, however, and actually has several claims to fame. Antwerp has been the diamond capital of the world for centuries. Armed guards and traders with handcuffed briefcases announce that you are in the Diamond Quarter, while a museum tells you all you need to know and dozens of shops sell discretely discounted ‘rocks’.

Although Peter Paul Rubens was German by birth, his parents were Antwerpenaars and it is here where he lived his adult life and this is the city to which he bequeathed some of his greatest works.

In the mid 1980s it was possible to name not just five, but six famous Belgians - the Antwerp Six, as they were/are still known in fashionista circles. Their legacy is very much alive today, not just in the Fashion Museum, or in the famous Antwerp Fashion Academy school, but on many city streets, where it seems that every other shop window is a designer statement.

Finally there’s the port, the second largest in Europe (after Rotterdam), one of the 10 largest in the world, and the principal source of the city’s wealth.

Antwerp is more than just a series of superlatives, however, and a weekend in this laid back stylish and confident town (shuffling to and fro the handsome main squares, investigating the old cobbled alleyways with their many excellent bars, restaurants and stylish shops) will show you just why a recent poll concluded that the citizens of Antwerp are the happiest city dwellers in Europe.