Coimbra

Coimbra is Portugal's ancient university city, a tumble of ochre houses stacked on a steep hill above the River Mondego, crowned by one of Europe's oldest universities. For six centuries students in flowing black capes have given the place its restless, learned energy, and you feel it in the alleys of the Almedina old town, in the bookshops, and in the melancholy Coimbra fado sung here by men rather than women. Start at the top, where the University's baroque Biblioteca Joanina and the Royal Palace look out over the river, then let gravity pull you down through medieval gates to the two great cathedrals and the monastery holding Portugal's first kings. The city is small enough to walk but hilly enough to earn your evening bica, so pace yourself and treat the riverside Parque Verde as a place to breathe. Coimbra rewards curiosity: duck into a former chapel that is now a cafe, listen to guitarra ring out at dusk, and use the city as a base for Roman ruins, misty forests and Atlantic beaches all within an hour. It is history you can wander into rather than queue for.