Ribeira District

The Ribeira is Porto's soul — a UNESCO World Heritage waterfront of medieval buildings stacked up the hillside in a tumble of terracotta roofs, peeling facades, and laundry hung from wrought-iron balconies. It looks like someone took a Mediterranean fishing village and tilted it 30 degrees against a cliff, which is more or less what happened over the past 800 years.

The quayside Praça da Ribeira has been the commercial heart of the city since the Middle Ages, when merchants traded salt cod, wine, and textiles from the warehouses that still line the square. Today the ground floors are restaurants and bars, and on a summer evening the entire waterfront becomes an open-air dining room with the Douro and the bridge as a backdrop. The francesinha — Porto's outrageous contribution to world cuisine, a sandwich buried in melted cheese and beer sauce — is best attempted here with a river view to distract from the calorie count.

The streets climbing up from the river are where Ribeira gets interesting. Narrow alleys with steps carved into the hillside connect the waterfront to the cathedral above, passing through pockets of neighbourhood that haven't changed much since the 18th century. Some buildings are gorgeously restored in blue and white azulejos. Others are crumbling beautifully. Porto has always been a working city, not a museum, and the Ribeira wears its age with pride rather than polish.