Seville

Seville runs on its own clock. In the heat of an Andalusian afternoon the city more or less stops, shutters down, streets empty, and then around eight in the evening it wakes up transformed. The orange trees throw long shadows across the plazas, the tapas bars fill from the doorway out, and somewhere a guitar starts up. To enjoy Seville you have to surrender to this rhythm: a slow morning, a quiet siesta, and a night that runs long and warm.

Where to stay

Stay in or near Santa Cruz, the old Jewish quarter, a maze of whitewashed lanes and tiled courtyards beside the cathedral. It is the most atmospheric part of the city and walkable to almost everything you came for. The lanes are narrow enough to keep the worst of the sun off, which in Seville is no small thing.

If Santa Cruz feels too touristy, cross the river to Triana, the old ceramics and flamenco quarter, where the bars are more local and the views back across the water are some of the best in town. Both neighbourhoods reward staying somewhere with a patio or a roof terrace, where you can sit out the heat of the day with a cold drink and a book before the city comes back to life.

Eat and drink

Tapas here are not a trend, they are how the city eats. The custom is to move, ordering a small plate and a drink at one bar, then walking to the next. Standing at the counter is normal and often cheaper than a table.

Look for jamon iberico, the cured ham carved in paper-thin slices, espinacas con garbanzos, the spinach and chickpea stew that is better than it sounds, and pescaito frito, lightly fried fish eaten with your fingers. Wash it down with a cold fino or manzanilla, the bone-dry sherries of the region, served chilled in small glasses. In the heat there is nothing better.

For something sweeter, the city’s convents still sell traditional cakes and pastries through small turning windows, a quiet ritual that has survived for centuries. And no evening is wasted if it ends with a glass of red on a Triana terrace as the lights come up along the river.

Do not miss

Visit the Real Alcazar, the royal palace whose courtyards, fountains and tilework are among the finest examples of Mudejar architecture anywhere, and go early before the queues build in the heat. Across the square, the vast cathedral holds the tomb of Columbus, and the climb up the Giralda bell tower, a converted minaret, gives you the whole city laid out below.

Walk to the Plaza de Espana in the late afternoon, when the light turns its sweeping tiled facade golden, and rent a small rowing boat on the canal if you have the energy. End with a flamenco show in a small Triana venue, the real kind, raw and close, where you feel the footwork through the floor. That is the Seville you came for.