Chiado

Chiado is where Lisbon keeps its literary memory and its better bookshops, a sloping grid of theatres, cafés and tailored shopfronts between Baixa and the Bairro Alto. The rebuild after the 1988 fire was handled with restraint, so the marble counters and old facades still set the tone rather than the chains that crept in behind them. Come for an unhurried morning: a coffee standing at the bar, a browse through first editions, an exhibition at one of the small galleries. It rewards people who like a neighbourhood to have read a few books.