Lisbon

Lisbon does not rush, and after a day here you stop trying to either. The light comes off the Tagus and turns the limestone pavements the colour of warm bread. Trams complain up gradients that would defeat most cities, and somewhere a radio is always playing fado, half heard, half imagined. This is a place to walk until your legs ache, then sit down for grilled fish and a glass of vinho verde and let the afternoon go.

Where to stay

Base yourself in Alfama or just above it. This is the oldest quarter, a tangle of stairs and washing lines that the 1755 earthquake somehow spared, and it puts you within walking distance of the cathedral, the castle and the river. Mornings here belong to locals carrying bread, not to tour groups, and that is worth a great deal.

If Alfama feels too steep, Chiado and Bairro Alto sit higher and flatter, closer to the bookshops, theatres and the long terraces that fill up at sunset. Avoid the strip right around the main square if you want to sleep: the bars run late and loud. A small guesthouse with a roof terrace is the move here, even a modest one. You will use it every evening.

Eat and drink

Start with the obvious and do it properly. A pastel de nata is a custard tart, and the version at the original Belem bakery is worth the tram ride, dusted with cinnamon and eaten standing up while it is still warm.

For lunch, find a tasca, the small family-run dining rooms where the menu is chalked on a board and the fish was swimming this morning. Order whatever is grilled: sardines in summer, sea bass the rest of the year, dressed with nothing but olive oil and a wedge of lemon. Bacalhau, salt cod, appears in a hundred forms, and the gentlest introduction is bacalhau a bras, shredded with eggs and matchstick potatoes.

In the evening, climb to Bairro Alto for petiscos, the Portuguese answer to tapas, and a glass of red from the Alentejo. Finish, if you have the stamina, with a ginjinha, the sour cherry liqueur poured from hole-in-the-wall counters near Rossio for a couple of coins.

Do not miss

Take tram 28 at least once, early, before it fills. It rattles through Graca, Alfama and Estrela on the route the postcards promise, and for the price of a single fare it is the best tour in the city.

Climb to the Miradouro de Santa Luzia for the view over the terracotta roofs to the river, then keep going up to Sao Jorge Castle for the wider sweep. Spend an afternoon in Belem, where the monastery and the tower mark the spot Portuguese ships left for the edge of the known world.

End on the river itself. Walk the promenade at Cais do Sodre as the sun drops behind the suspension bridge, and you will understand why people who come to Lisbon for a weekend keep finding reasons to stay another night.