Porto in One Day: The City of Wine, Orange Rooftops and the Bookshop Everyone Ties to Harry Potter

Porto doesn't need much time to win you over - one day is enough if you know where to head. Orange rooftops, the Douro river and the old boats that once carried barrels of wine: Portugal's second city is one of those destinations that stay in your head longer than you stay in them.

The story of the city is the story of wine. In Vila Nova de Gaia, on the other bank of the river, historic wineries line up where port wine matures for decades in oak barrels. The Cálem winery, for instance, offers an interactive museum and tastings that start from around 22 euros. You don't have to love wine to find it interesting - it's enough to want to understand why a city builds a whole identity around a single drink.

For lunch, the terraces over the Douro offer a view and a taste at the same time - bacalhau (cod) in every possible form, octopus, seafood rice. Portugal lives with cod the way we live with beans: every family has its own way. After lunch, the Teleférico de Gaia cable car carries you 600 metres above the river for the most recognisable view of the city.

The afternoon is for walking. The Sao Bento train station with walls clad in blue tiles (azulejos) that tell Portuguese history, the cathedral, the Clérigos tower and, of course, the Livraria Lello bookshop - one of the most beautiful bookshops in Europe, with a spectacular central staircase. The legend that J.K. Rowling imagined Hogwarts here she herself denies, yet the bookshop still fills up rows of tourists today.

The evening belongs to the river. A cruise along the "Route of the Six Bridges" lasts about an hour and costs around 20 euros, and Porto from the water looks like an entirely different city. To finish - dinner by the waterfront in Cais da Ribeira, with grilled sausage, roasted octopus and sardines the Portuguese way.

One piece of advice that comes up everywhere: bring comfortable shoes. Porto is a city of hills and cobblestones, and you walk a lot. But that's exactly the point - this is a place best experienced slowly, step by step, with a glass of wine at the end of the day.