Lapa: the diplomatic hill and the national gallery
Embassies, a quiet hill, and a museum terrace looking straight down the river. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Estrela
Start by the *Basílica da Estrela*, the great white dome on the hill. The garden across the road is a good place to gather yourself; from here it's downhill and quiet all the way to the river.

2. The mansions of Lapa
Wander the streets below Estrela — *Rua de São Domingos à Lapa* and the lanes off it. Big nineteenth-century houses, half of them embassies now, flags and brass plates and not much traffic. The flattest, calmest grand quarter in a city that doesn't do flat.

3. Embassy row
Keep going and the plates come thicker — consulates, residences, the odd discreet gate with a guard. Look up at the *azulejo* (tile) frontages and the iron balconies; this is old Lisbon money, kept behind shutters.

4. Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga
The national gallery, in a palace above the docks — Nuno Gonçalves' *Panels of St. Vincent* the painting everyone comes for. Even if you skip the galleries, the garden café terrace over the river and the cranes is one of the great free views in Lisbon.

5. Down through Santos
Drop down to *Santos* — old riverside warehouses turned design studios and bars, the slope easing as you near the water. A different Lisbon from the embassies up the hill, ten minutes apart.

6. Cais do Sodré
Follow the riverfront east to the station. Trains, the green-line metro, and the ferries across the Tagus all leave from here, so however you're heading next, this is the place to do it.

Lapa: the diplomatic hill and the national gallery