Belváros: the inner city and the river
A grand café, the old shopping street, and the Danube promenade that ends every Pest walk. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Vörösmarty tér
Start on the square named for the poet, with the white marble Vörösmarty monument at its centre. Come before the cafés put their chairs out and you get the *tér* (square) almost to yourself. The M1 — the little yellow underground line, oldest on the Continent — surfaces right here.

2. Café Gerbeaud
The grand café on the square's north side, trading since the 1850s. You don't have to sit down to the full apparatus of cake and silver; a coffee at the counter and a look at the gilded ceilings is enough. The *dobos torta* — caramel-topped sponge — is the thing to order if you do stay.

3. Váci utca
The old shopping street runs south from the square, pedestrian its whole length. Walk it for the shopfronts and the mix of grand and tat; the upper stretch is the prettier half. Skip the touristy restaurants with menus in six languages and someone outside waving you in.

4. Párisi Udvar
Detour east a block to the *Párisi udvar* (Parisian courtyard), a glass-roofed arcade off Ferenciek tere — now a hotel, but the lobby and the stained-glass dome are open to look at. One of the strangest, most ornate interiors in Pest. Go even if you only stand under the glass for a minute.

5. Vigadó tér
Back west to the river at the concert-hall square. The Vigadó's wedding-cake façade faces the water; behind you the Danube opens up with the Buda hills and the Chain Bridge to the right. This is where the riverfront walk begins.

6. The Danube Corso
End on the promenade along the Pest embankment, the *korzó*, with the castle and Gellért Hill across the water. Walk north towards the Chain Bridge as the light comes off the river. Vörösmarty tér and the M1 are two minutes inland when you're done.

Belváros: the inner city and the river