Boutique Hotels in Seville

The set-pieces cluster in the centre, within a short walk of one another. The Cathedral is the largest Gothic church on earth, holding Columbus's tomb, and its bell tower — the Giralda, once a minaret — is climbed by ramp rather than stair, for the city's best view. Beside it stands the Real Alcázar, a Mudéjar royal palace of tiled courtyards, carved ceilings and dreamlike gardens, still a residence of the Spanish crown after seven hundred years and familiar now from the screen. A little north, the Setas de Sevilla, the giant timber "mushrooms" of the Metropol Parasol, give a modern counterpoint and a rooftop walk.

Around them lies the Seville to get lost in. Barrio Santa Cruz, the old Jewish quarter hard by the Cathedral, is a warren of whitewashed lanes, orange trees and hidden plazas, thick with tapas bars. Across the Guadalquivir, the working-class barrio of Triana is the cradle of Sevillano flamenco and of the city's ceramic tiles, with a fine covered market and the best riverside bars. South, the Plaza de España, a vast semicircle of tiled bridges and pavilions built for the 1929 fair, opens onto the green of the Parque de María Luisa. The river itself, walked or cruised at golden hour, ties the whole city together.

Seville is one of the homes of the tapa, and eating here is done standing up and on the move: a sherry or a cold beer and a small plate — spinach with chickpeas, cuttlefish, jamón, a slab of tortilla — then on to the next bar. The old streets of Santa Cruz and the market and side streets of Triana are the places to graze, ideally late; mornings start gently with churros and thick chocolate, and the local fino and manzanilla sherries are poured everywhere. The rhythm is southern — long, late and sociable — and best surrendered to.

Then there is flamenco, which Seville claims as its own. See it in a tablao, at a Triana bar or, in summer, in a courtyard, where the raw, intense version is a world away from the show. For where to stay, the club's choice sits in the thick of the old town: Corral del Rey, an intimate hotel set in seventeenth-century casa palaces in the central Alfalfa quarter, a few minutes' walk from the Cathedral, with a rooftop plunge pool and a view to the Giralda. Central, calm and full of character, it is an ideal base for a city made for wandering.

Seville's defining fact is the heat, and it shapes when to come. The city is among the hottest in Europe, and from June to August afternoons regularly pass forty degrees — punishing for sightseeing, though the city adapts with shade, siestas and late nights. Spring and autumn are far better: March to May brings warm days, the orange blossom and the great festivals of Semana Santa and the April Feria, while September and October are warm, golden and calmer. Winter is mild and bright, rarely cold, and a fine, quiet time for the monuments. For the city at its most beautiful — blossom, light and festival — come in spring; for warmth without the crush, early autumn.