Estrela / Lapa

Estrela and Lapa are the quiet, well-to-do quarters on the western slopes, built around a great domed basilica and a romantic public garden with a bandstand and old trees. Lapa below holds embassies and discreet mansions on streets that rarely see a crowd, the kind of place where wealth shows itself in restraint. The pleasures are gentle: a slow turn around the garden, the basilica, a tram clattering past. Come when you want Lisbon's calm, residential dignity rather than its noise.