Quotes of the Day

There's a t-shirt sold in Seville that reads boldly Joé, Que Caló. Some tourists think the shirt has to do with a guy named Joe. No. Joé, Que Caló is Andalucian slang meaning that the weather is, ah, copulatingly hot.

If summer in Seville can be unbearable, autumn is a treat. Right now is the perfect time to do the two things for which this southern city is a mecca: patear and tapear. These are also slang verbs, the former meaning to kick around on foot,

	STREETWISE
		RESTAURANTS Unlimited. Bodegón Universal, along Calle Betis, has good tapas and sit-down food, either within or on the riverside (tel. +34 954 278465). On the cathedral side of the river is Modesto in Santa Cruz (tel. +34 954 416811). The gazpacho's good and the huevos rotos con patatas — semi-scrambled eggs on a bed of potato slices — are superb. If it's breakfast you need, buy churros at the shop two doors down and take them back there for coffee. Encouraged, not frowned upon. MUSIC As essential to Sevillanos as talk and tapas. For 25 years El Arenal, a restaurant in Calle Rodo, parallel to the river, has been putting on Flamenco shows at 9pm and 11pm. Entrance is €29, but worth it. Tel. +34 954 278465 SHOPPING Calle Sierpes, mentioned by Cervantes, is a mix of Body Shop, fashion for the near-anorexic, and old places like Maquedano, a hat shop at No. 40, where the daring can buy one of those wide, flat hats Andalucian riders look so cool in. INTERNET Among the restaurants and bars in Calle Betis, on the south bank of the Guadalquivir in Triana, Mauricio Femat owns the Tequila Connection Internet Café at No. 41, plus the Mexican Rock restaurant next door. In the café you can even burn a CD. Femat stays open from 11.30 a.m. to 4 a.m., "or till you die." €0.60 for 15 minutes online.

the latter to consume tapas, those small taste trips that marry food and drink. Given that it is hard to walk 50 meters in Seville without coming across a bar, the visitor easily does more tap than pat. It's a question of finding the right balance between digestion and shoe leather.

The other reason for walking in Seville is that driving is hell, and parking is for panic attacks. The streets in the old part of the town, particularly in the Santa Cruz area, were made for horses, not horsepower. Like most Spanish cities, Seville is very noisy. But Sevillanos are friendly and ever happy to spout directions, never mind that they can be as hard to grasp as Joé, Que Caló.

A place where this expression should not be used is in the vast, hushed cathedral, one of the biggest in the world. Here the remains of Christopher Columbus are said to be contained in the coffin held aloft by four men of bronze. It seems unfair that the explorer does not rest in either earth or sea — and that no one knows if it is really him. "I don't believe so," says a Seville taxi driver. "And anyway, he was an Italian."

Alongside the cathedral is the Giralda tower, 96-m tall if you count the statue. It was used to call Muslims to prayer under Arab rule, and offers a splendid view of the town. The climb is by a series of ramps: the muezzin used to ride up on horseback. Near the Maestranza, the second-oldest bullring in Spain (1761), you see the wide Guadalquivir (Big River in Arabic) bend through the city. Just below the tower glistens the rooftop pool of the elegant old four-star Hotel Doña María, which at this time of year charges j120 for a double with bathroom . It's cheaper — €93 — in fiery July and August.

The Guadalquivir is crossed by nine bridges; the oldest, the Triana, was designed by Gustave Eiffel and built in 1852. The newest is the harp-like Alamillo bridge of Valencian architect Santiago Calatrava, built for the 1992 World Expo. The best way to see them is by motor launch, departing from the Torre de Oro, or Gold Tower, every 30 minutes. The €12 trip lasts an hour. There's also a full-day €23 trip to Sanlúcar de Barrameda, where the Guadalquivir meets the Atlantic. Leaving at 8.30 a.m., the boat takes four-and-a-half hours to reach the seaside town of Sanlúcar, making you wonder how tough it must have been for Columbus, Magellan, Pizarro et al just to make the coast to start their journeys. Sanlúcar is one of the best places in Spain to eat fish.

There is so much to see in Seville, but if I had just three hours in this city I would spend one doing patear/tapear, and two in the Reales Alcázares, Europe's oldest palace complex, which displays the genius of Arab architects and craftsmen. A minute's walk from the cathedral, it also tells tales of the Romans who preceded the Moors and the Christian kings who expelled them. The vast gardens are a fine place to sit and think about all this rise and fall. One tree in particular, choricia speciosa, is in all its glory now, wearing huge pink flowers. It is known locally as the palo borracho, or drunk pole, for its bottle-shaped trunk — another hint of the intoxicating nature of Seville in autumn.

• ROD USHER
• Autumn is the very best season to stroll, sip and graze in this Andalucian mecca