Porto

The iron span of 1886 carries walkers on both of its decks. Up top you go alongside the metro with the river far below, while the lower deck crosses at the height of the quayside restaurants.

A bookshop from 1906 whose red staircase splits in the middle and joins again at the top. The entry fee comes off the price if you buy a book, so it is worth keeping hold of the ticket.

A narrow square meets the water with mismatched houses stacked up behind it. As the sun drops to the west, the lodge walls on the far bank colour before anything else does.

The bell tower finished in 1763 stands 76m tall, and 225 steps run up it without a landing. Near the top the stair narrows to barely two people, so those coming down go first.

Twenty thousand tiles cover the concourse walls of the railway station with battles and harvests. Walking in costs nothing, though at the morning rush there is little room to stand in front of the panels.

Cellars of stacked barrels stand under the hill on the far bank, and most tours finish by pouring two or three glasses. Inside stays cool all year, so a midday visit in summer calls for a layer.

Merchants raised this exchange in the 1800s, and 18kg of gold leaf went into one Arabian room alone. Entry runs on guided rounds, so there is no way to wander it on your own.

Where the river gives out into the sea there is a lighthouse and a breakwater, reached from town on a single tram line. In the evening the swell comes over the wall and throws water onto the path.

A pink art deco villa and a modern art museum share one park. A separate ticket covers the grounds alone, where sculptures stand among the trees without any signs to introduce them.

The hall of 1914 reopened after repair, with kitchens on the upper level and produce and fish below. Trading stops mid afternoon, and anyone arriving at dusk meets closed shutters.

Crowning the old town's top hill, this 12th-century cathedral looks as blunt as a fortress. Blue 18th-century tile pictures cover the cloister walls. Its front terrace looks across rooftops to the Douro and the lettered signs of the Gaia port lodges.

A plain Gothic shell whose walls and pillars inside are smothered in gilded carving. Under the floor, catacombs and an ossuary of bones are included with entry. The Bolsa palace next door went up on the site of this friary, burned in 1832.

A small chapel on a corner of Rua de Santa Catarina, its outer walls entirely clad in blue tiles. The scenes from the lives of St Francis and St Catherine were tiled in 1929. The outside is the show; cross the street to get all of it in a photo.

Two churches that seem joined are split by a sliver of a house barely 1m wide. Tradition says it stopped the friars' church and the nuns' from sharing a wall. The huge tile panel on the side of Carmo church is one of the most photographed walls in the city.

Hillside gardens where a 19th-century exhibition hall once stood, with peacocks wandering the lawns. The glass palace itself was pulled down in 1951 and a domed arena stands there now. The western terraces watch the Douro bend away to the sea.

A monastery on the Gaia hilltop across the river, its church and cloister both laid out in circles. Walk over the upper deck of the Dom Luis bridge and you are there. Its forecourt stares straight at Ribeira and the bridge, and the railing is packed by sunset.

Boats modelled on the rabelo, the old port barrel barges, leave Ribeira or the Gaia bank and pass under six Douro bridges. They head upriver first, then turn back toward the mouth. Riding low, you see the iron undersides from an angle no quay offers.

A short cable car from Jardim do Morro, where the bridge's upper deck ends, down to the Gaia riverside. It skims the port lodge roofs, so you read the company names from above. Many ride it instead of walking the hill and go straight into a tasting.

A concert hall from 2005, a white faceted block designed by Rem Koolhaas. Both ends of the main hall are rippled glass, so the city shows through during concerts. Guided tours of the building run on days without a concert.

A Belle Epoque cafe opened on Rua de Santa Catarina in 1921. Carved wood, tall mirrors and leather chairs survive from opening day. A queue often forms at the door and prices run several times a local cafe's, so some order one coffee just to see the room.

A broad strand in the port town just north of Porto, at the end of metro line A. A giant net sculpture hangs over the seafront roundabout and sways in the wind. In the streets behind the beach, fish restaurants grill on charcoal braziers parked by the kerb.

A patch of open ground tucked into the lanes of the old Jewish quarter. Ribeira's orange roofs tumble toward the water, with the Gaia lodges straight across. The sign is small; find it by following the lanes down from the Clerigos Tower side.

A vineyard village reached on a day trip up the river by the Douro line train from Sao Bento. Its terraced hillside vineyards gained UNESCO listing in 2001. Blue tiles showing the grape harvest cover the walls of Pinhao station.

A 16th-century merchants' street, now closed to traffic. Cafes and craft shops fill the ground floors of old mansions with iron balconies. Midway along, the Misericordia church museum shows the paintings this charity collected.

An 18th-century church perched over the steps of Praca da Batalha, its front faced in blue tiles. Jorge Colaco, who also tiled Sao Bento station, painted them in the 1930s. It sits where Rua de Santa Catarina begins.