There’s a few convenient options for an after dinner drink. Settle in at Mary Mary which is also located in The Tasman for an exquisite drinks menu that is all about sourcing local indigenous ingredients and artisanal spirits from Tassie. Or head back to MACq01 and beeline for The Story Bar where you can knock back a night cap at the bar or on the sprawling balcony overlooking Derwent River. A rarity on Mondays, Lucinda Wine Bar is open early in the week to keep you well watered.

Skip well-trodden Salamanca Market and head to the city’s Farm Gate Market, where primary producers sell the fruits of the season from 8.30am when a big brass bell rings every Sunday. Downtown Bathurst Street is closed off and given over to between 50 and 70 stallholders who sell their barbecued octopus tentacles from the frigid waters of Eaglehawk Neck, sourdough, smoked seafood, apple juice pressed from the fruit at Thurlaston Farm in the Huon Valley. Stay for breakfast, lunch, and cater tomorrow’s picnic.

In just seven years, Mona has single handedly elicited a sense of world-class culture to Tasmania’s capital city. Owned by millionaire David Walsh, the museum is carved deep into the sandstone cliffs of the Berriedale peninsula and has become one of the city’s most enigmatic and eccentric main attractions. A museum of new and old art is packed with curiosities in sight and sound, with $100 million worth of private art spanning Sidney Nolan, a Porsche sculpted by Austria’s Erwin Wurm, and vast modern art heavy with themes of death and sex. It’s an immersive experience not to be missed.

Nobody does feral pig’s eyeball in a black margarita cocktail like the new restaurant at Mona. The new Faro is, like Mona itself, a work of art. For the baffled drinker, staff advise to drink the margarita promptly, before the ice encasing the very-real eyeball melts. No first-time trip to Hobart is complete without a stopover at Mona, and now Faro joins it on the list. Located in the newest wing of the museum (which sits in spectacular fashion right on the water’s edge), you can dine on locally sourced Tasmanian produce, which is not as challenging as the aforementioned drink. There’s classic tapas served all day, with a dash of modern Australian. Think: a three-bite fried oyster and chorizo sandwich or air-dried beef with broad beans and peas.

You can’t stay at Mona unless you’re dead, says the museum and art gallery’s website. So they’ve catered to the living with a new art hotel on the banks of the Derwent. The new luxury dens are each named after an influential Australian artist or architect, and feature art from the Mona collection. The eight pavilions are all suites, and start at $700 a night and boast original art, ancient artifacts, and the glass-dominant pavilions cantilever dramatically over the river. Three-storey, two-bedroom penthouse Roy is the most spacious and spectacular, and features a spa bath on the deck.

Put paddock to plate into practice at the Agrarian Kitchen Cooking School and farm in Lachlan, a 45-minute drive from Hobart. The life lessons on food and provenance are worth the short road trip. The Agrarian Kitchen teaches sustainable farm-based cooking in a converted schoolhouse; and the first part of most sessions involves pulling ingredients from the garden, using the on-site heirloom fruit and vegetables, discovering the Wessex saddlebacks and other assorted rare-breed livestock on the farm, as well as local produce. There’s black Tasmanian truffles, wild trout, rock lobsters. After whipping up lunch in the teaching kitchen, students sit down to enjoy it in a cosy dining room. It’s an idyllic, romantic experience as well as a great feed.