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Most visitors to Kyoto stay close to the famous sites — Fushimi Inari, Arashiyama, Gion — and they are worth seeing. But the Kyoto that stays with you is found in the streets between those landmarks. The narrow lanes of Nishiki, the moss-covered stone steps of forgotten shrines, the old wooden machiya houses with sliding…

Lisbon is a city best understood on foot, and Alfama is where that walk begins. The oldest neighbourhood in the city climbs steeply from the waterfront, its alleyways too narrow for cars, its walls decorated with hand-painted azulejo tiles and decades of faded history. I arrived on a Saturday morning with no fixed plan and…