The west of Södermalm is its genteel face — a grand leafy square, a church in a green yard, a hill of small galleries, and behind them the oldest lanes on the rock. Under three kilometres, and the kind of walk that rewards stopping more than striding.
Begin at Mariatorget. The fountain at the centre is Tors fiske — Thor's fishing — and the square around it is the calmest of the big Söder squares: trees, benches, cafés on the edges. Take a coffee on a bench before you move. North to Maria Magdalena kyrka, set in its own churchyard, and then onto Hornsgatan.
The rise of the street is the Hornsgatspuckeln, the hump, lined with small art galleries — go in and out as the windows pull you; that's what they're for. From the galleries drop into Bastugatan and the lanes of painted timber on the berg, where the water shows at the end of every alley, and drift through the antique shops on the way. East along the ridge and you come out at Slussen for the line home.
