Dubrovnik

The circuit runs 1940 metres and walkers are sent around it in one direction only. Little shade falls on the walkway, so in high summer people go up as the gate opens.

The cabin reaches a 412 metre summit in 4 minutes and an old fort waits up there. From here the walled town and the islands offshore fall into a single frame.

This fort stands apart on its own rock outside the wall, its seaward face 12 metres thick. Plays are staged in the courtyard through summer.

The head of the republic lived here for one month at a time and could not leave during that term. Carved above the door is an order to forget private matters.

Limestone worn to a polish paves 300 metres between the two gates. A channel of water once ran here and was filled in, which is why the line is straight.

Open since 1317, it is the third oldest pharmacy in Europe. Prescriptions are still filled here and the old ceramic jars remain on the shelves.

Fifteen minutes out by boat, this uninhabited island has peacocks loose on its paths. A small salt lake set in the rock allows a swim.

It lies directly under where the wall ends on the east, so the wall is looked up at from the water. The pebbles run coarse and many people wade in wearing shoes.

Built as a customs house and a mint, it opens into a wide arcaded courtyard. Where the scales once stood, a line in Latin still asks for honest weighing.

A boat ride of 45 minutes south reaches a quiet harbour wrapped around one peninsula. The mausoleum on the hill was built by the sculptor Mestrovic.

Onofrio della Cava built this round fountain in 1438 where his aqueduct from the hills reached town. Sixteen carved stone faces spout water; the 1667 earthquake cost it its dome. The water is still drinkable, so walkers refill bottles here before the walls.

Fire gutted the patron saint's old church in 1706, and a Baroque one replaced it in 1715. On the altar his gilded silver statue cradles a model of pre-earthquake Dubrovnik. Every 3 February, his feast day, the procession leaves from these steps.

A Baroque cathedral raised to replace the one the 1667 earthquake brought down. An Assumption from Titian's workshop hangs behind the high altar. In the treasury, gold and silver reliquaries said to hold St Blaise's head and arms cover a whole wall.

Built against the walls just inside the Ploce Gate, this monastery doubled as part of the defences. Orange trees grow in the garden of its Gothic cloister. The museum keeps a Titian altarpiece of Mary Magdalene.

Pietro Passalacqua laid these Baroque steps in 1738, copying Rome's Spanish Steps. They rise from the Gundulic Square market to St Ignatius church. Game of Thrones shot the queen's walk of shame here, so many visitors pose halfway up.

A stone knight on a column, set up on Luza Square in 1418; the republic hoisted its flag from it. Traders measured cloth by the length of his forearm. Each opening day of the summer festival, the Libertas banner is raised on it.

Hidden up a flight of stairs in a house on narrow Zudioska street. Many call it the oldest Sephardic synagogue still in use, with services on the High Holy Days. That floor also works as a museum of centuries-old ritual objects.

This round tower on the north-west corner marks the top of the whole wall circuit. Juraj Dalmatinac gave it its present shape in the 15th century. Up there, terracotta roofs and open sea share one view, the most photographed stop of the walk.

The western way in: the outer gate dates from 1537, the inner one from earlier in the 15th century. The wooden bridge across the moat was once pulled up daily to shut the city. St Blaise, holding Dubrovnik, watches from a niche overhead.

The republic's 16th-century granary, with fifteen grain pits cut into the rock. It stored enough to ride out a siege and now houses the ethnographic museum. Visitors enter peering down into the deep pits on the ground floor.

Quarantine halls put up during the 17th century on the shore outside the Ploce Gate; merchants and cargo from the east waited here for days to keep plague out. Long buildings frame a row of courtyards. Now a venue, it hosts shows on summer nights.

A morning market facing Gruz harbour, where ferries and island boats dock. Farms nearby bring vegetables and fruit, and fishermen bring the day's catch. You hear more Croatian than at the old town stalls, and the fish sells out by mid-morning.

Lopud, one of the Elaphiti Islands, has no cars, so you cross it on foot from the harbour. Sunj Bay beyond is fine sand, unusual on this coast, and shelves gently. Island boats run from Gruz harbour, and the round trip fits in one day.

In the 15th century the republic ran these walls over the hill between Ston and Mali Ston to guard its salt pans; once over 7km long, 5.5km survive. Walkers may follow its crest. The climb is steep: start early, then eat oysters in Mali Ston.

The noble Gucetic family began this garden in the late 1400s, asking ship captains to carry home seeds. An aqueduct built in 1492 still waters it. Two plane trees more than 500 years old tower over the village square, visible before you reach the gate.