A Valentine's weekend in Nashville

Built in 1892 as a tabernacle, the Mother Church of Country Music housed the Grand Ole Opry for over thirty years; the pews are the original wood, and the acoustics are why artists still argue for a night on that stage. Do both versions: a daytime tour, sitting in the pews of an empty hall, then a ticket to whatever plays that night. Some Opry dates are billed as Opry at the Ryman, five miles from the Opry House, so check the venue on your ticket.

Instruments, handwritten lyrics, stage costumes and the rotunda hold fans and sceptics alike for two or three hours, there's a café for when you flag, and all of it is indoors on a day when that matters.

In a Green Hills strip mall, four songwriters sit in the round trading songs and the stories behind them, to about ninety people who do not talk; the silence rule is enforced, warmly and firmly, and it is why the room works. Seats are limited and online tickets go quickly, so book the moment your dates are fixed. The early and late shows feel quite different; arrive early for a table rather than a bar stool.

The Bluebird often sells out, and the Station Inn is a substitute, not a consolation: a squat stone room in the Gulch that has been the city's bluegrass home since 1974, with a small stage, shared tables and mostly first-come seating. Get there early. With no windows to speak of, the weather stops mattering.

In February Cheekwood becomes a quieter, stranger pleasure: bare woodland, formal gardens pared to their hedges, long views down the hill with nobody else on the path. The 1930s limestone mansion, open to the public since 1960, is a house museum with art galleries, and the estate keeps plantings under glass, so there's a warm spine to the visit when the wind picks up. It closes one day a week and runs ticketed seasonal exhibitions, so check what's open. Give it two unhurried hours.

On a truly cold or icy morning, skip the drive and stay close: the Frist on Broadway, five minutes from downtown, shows rotating exhibitions in a restored 1930s Art Deco post office. Marble, grillwork, enormous doors and a café make for a calm, warm hour or two.