Alfama

Alfama is the oldest quarter, the Moorish-era maze below the castle that the earthquake largely spared, and it still reads as a single dense organism of stairs, arches and washing lines. Fado houses, tiny chapels and viewpoints turn up without warning as the lanes fold back on themselves above the river. It carries more visitors than it used to, but step off the main descents and the old rhythm holds: cats, doorways, a radio, the cathedral bells. Go without a map and let yourself get lost on purpose.