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Few European cities wear their history as visibly as Porto. The second city of Portugal rises in tiers above the Douro river, its medieval Ribeira district tumbling down to the waterfront in a cascade of terracotta rooftiles, azulejo-tiled facades, and granite church towers. The Romans were here, the Moors passed through, and it was from these quays that the caravels of the Age of Discovery set sail. The port wine trade, conducted for centuries from the lodges of Vila Nova de Gaia on the opposite bank, gave the city both its name and a particular mercantile confidence that still colours the architecture of the Baixa and the Bolhão quarter.

The Ribeira and the streets climbing towards the Sé cathedral reward unhurried walking. Miradouros punctuate the hillsides at intervals, each offering a different angle on the river and the iron bridge that Gustave Eiffel's office engineered in the 1880s. Further west, the Foz do Douro neighbourhood sits where the river meets the Atlantic, quieter and more residential, with a different quality of light. Eastward, the Bonfim and Campanhã districts have drawn a younger creative population over the past decade, though the city's older rhythms persist in the covered market halls and the tiled stairwells of its apartment buildings.