Vilnius

Vilnius unfolds in baroque curves and crumbling courtyards, one of the largest old towns in Europe and one of the least crowded.

Cross a small footbridge over the Vilnia and you step into Užupis, a self-declared republic of artists with its own tongue-in-cheek constitution bolted to a wall. Soviet concrete still looms at the edges, a reminder of an occupation that ended within living memory.

The city is deeply, quietly Lithuanian-pagan roots beneath the Catholic gilt, and a melancholy the locals seem to half-enjoy.

Fill up on cepelinai, those heavy potato zeppelins, with a dark local beer in a candlelit cellar.