Everyone walks from the Old Town Square to Charles Bridge; almost no one walks the lanes that hold the actual history. This is the literary, bookish Staré Město — the chapel where the Reformation started, the great Jesuit library, the small squares the crowds skip — done in the afternoon, against the grain of the foot traffic.
Start at Národní třída and cut up to the Bethlehem Chapel, a deliberately plain hall where Jan Hus preached in Czech around 1400, a hundred years before Luther nailed up his theses. From the chapel's square, past the Náprstek Museum, slip into Anenské náměstí — home to the Theatre on the Balustrade, where Havel learned his trade — then onto Karlova, the famous lane. Walk it, but keep ducking off it.
The Klementinum is the prize: the Baroque Library Hall with its painted ceiling and old globes, and an Astronomical Tower you can climb without the bridge-tower queues — both by tour, so check the times. End on Mariánské náměstí, where the City Library keeps a tower of books stacked in its lobby and Staroměstská metro is two quiet minutes away.
