Vieux Nice (Old Town)

Vieux Nice (Place Rossetti)

Ochre lanes with laundry overhead, a Baroque cathedral, gelato on the square

Hours

Streets always open; most shops open around 10am

Tickets

Free

Address

The lanes between Castle Hill and the Promenade du Paillon; the heart is Place Rossetti in front of Sainte-Réparate cathedral

Step one block off the tram line and the streets suddenly narrow: three- and four-storey houses in ochre and orange, green shutters on every window, laundry strung between them. The lanes knot together so tightly that even the map gets confused, but every wrong turn ends in a small square. On Place Rossetti, the Baroque cathedral of Sainte-Réparate faces a gelato shop that always has a queue. At street level it's socca ovens, olive-oil and soap shops, tiny wine bars. Getting lost is the point.