Walking the streets, stopping where you fancy and perhaps getting lost a few times is the best way to get the feel of a city. If you do this in Quito, however, don't bring anything of value with you, keep your camera hidden, and only bring a few dollars. Pickpocketing and bag slashing are special skills of the city's thieves. Generally speaking though, Quito isn't dangerous for tourists as long as they don't carry tempting targets for petty thieves. The less you have to lose, the safer and freer you will be. Don't walk about the old town alone at night, and take special care wherever you are.

The best way to get a feel for the old town's geography is from up high. If coming from the New Town, consider making the neo-gothic Basilica del Voto Nacional, the highest church in the country, your first stop. Take the lift in the left tower up to the lookout terrace, where there's also a handy, if quirky, cafe, open 9:30am to 5pm every day. From here, the old town with its dozens of spires and belltowers stretches across the valley, ending with the Panecillo hill topped by the Virgin. On clear mornings, the views are breathtaking.

Looking across to the far left, you'll see the small Church of San Blas. It marked the northerly limit to the old city, and was also one of the few churches open to Indians in colonial times. Slightly to the right of San Blas, downhill, you can make out the salmon pink facade of one of the buildings on Plaza del Teatro. Coming out of the Basilica, walk down Venezuela, past the wonderfully-ornate carvings on the doors of the El Carmen Bajo church, and downhill and back one block to this restored square. It's dominated by the Corinthian columns of Quito's most ornate theatre, Teatro Sucre.

From the square, walk back along Guayaquil street [once inhabited by wealthy commercial families] to the beautiful church of San Agustin begun in the sixteenth century. Much of the church was rebuilt in the nineteenth century, but its dark interior and large canvases are still captivating. The adjoining convent boasts a lovely cloister, housing a museum of important paintings of the Quito School on the second floor [open Monday to Friday 9am to noon, 3pm to 5pm, Saturday 8am to noon]. In 1809, the first treaty of independence from Spain was signed here.

One block uphill on the crowded, pedestrian Chile, you come to Plaza de la Independencia [known locally as Plaza Grande]. The square is overlooked by a number of distinguished civic buildings and is the setting for the Victorian-style Liberty Monument in the midst of palms and flowerbeds, old men and children, shoe-shiners and benches. The Presidential Palace, the Archbishop's Palace, the modern City Administration Building and the Cathedral command the locus of the old town, yet much of the real power of the city has long since moved northwards to the new town where most banks, big businesses and embassies are now located. Many of the big old mansions in the old town, once home to the rich and famous, are now tatty, run-down, divided up and rented to tenants. The Cathedral, though grand and imposing from the outside, is a disappointment inside, despite guarding the tomb of Grand Marshal Sucre, and being the site of the poisoning of the city's bishop in 1877.

You can poke your head inside the Presidential Palace, also known as the Government Palace, and glimpse a huge mural of Francisco de Orellana cruising down the Amazon. Echoing Quito's pride in this event, a sign on the cathedral's wall proclaims “Quito's Glory is the discovery of the Amazon River.” Fittingly, since Orellana and Gonzalo Pizarro set off to find El Dorado, the lettering is in gold. Not surprisingly, the Ecuadoreans resent the fact that a large chunk of the territory through which the great river flows, which once belonged to Ecuador, is now part of Peru .

Heading west along Garcia Moreno from the Cathedral's corner, you pass the main chapel of the cathedral, the beautiful El Sagrario, which has recently been restored, and is now an independent church. Further along you'll come to the magnificent volcanic stone facade of La Compania de Jesus, considered to be the loveliest church in Ecuador. Built by the Jesuits, it was only just completed before their expulsion in 1767. Its massive altars, baroque columns and ceilings are laden with tonnes of gold leaf, though some of its most precious treasures are kept in the vault of Banco Central and only displayed on festival days. It has been undergoing thorough restoration over the last years, but its exuberance and extravagance are still incomparable in Quito, and perhaps Latin America .

On the church's corner, walk up Sucre [once 'Cotton Street'] to the cobble-clad expanse of Plaza de San Francisco. On its far side stands the huge Iglesia de San Francisco, South America's oldest church, built soon after the city was founded in 1536. Though much of it has been extensively rebuilt after earthquake damage, the complex is still the largest of its type on the continent, reflecting the great powers enjoyed by the religious orders in colonial times. The church's interior rivals that of La Compania, with more gold leaf than a conquistador could have dreamed of. Highlights include the unique carving of the winged Virgin by Bernardo de Legarda, and the altar and paintings of La Capilla de Cantuna, an adjoining chapel.

To the right of the church as you face its twin bell-tower lies the Museo de San Francisco, open Monday to Saturday 9am to 6pm, Sunday 9am to noon. Guided tours [ask for English] take you round the beautiful cloisters and the excellent collection of paintings, furniture and sculpture which was once housed in the city's School of Painting and Arts — you'll note the remnants of the pupil's paintings on the walls. The tour also includes a visit to the church's choir with its fantastic mudejar [Moorish] ceiling, whose symmetrical patterns and gold leaf seem to float off up to heaven.

A good place to recharge your batteries or grab a light lunch is cafe Tanguiez which also has an artesania shop. It's at the foot of the church's steps. Revived, you're now ready for the old town's best museums. Walk west on Cuenca or Benalcazar until turning downhill on Rocafuerte. Pass under the Arco de la Reina arch at the corner by the Carmen Alto church, and on Garcia Moreno lies the Museo de la Ciudad, open 9:30am to 5:30pm Tuesday to Sunday. The Old Town 's newest museum, it's aimed at foreigners and Ecuadoreans alike, imparting a dynamic and occasionally interactive view of the city's social history, from its prehistoric inhabitants to the present day. The museum is housed within the beautiful Hospital San Juan de Dios, where the poor and sick were cared for until it closed 1974. It gives an excellent feel for the day-to-day lives of Quitenos, from candle-makers and forgers through to artists and artisans. Also of note is the gruesome display of self-torturing implements owned by the city's saint, Mariana de Jesus, and the extraordinary series of three large canvases depicting the Conquest by contemporary artist Jaime Zapata. Guided tours are available in English. Entrance to the museum is a couple of dollars.

For more of the city and its inhabitants' lives, the Casa de Maria Augusta Urrutia on Garcia Moreno and the Casa de Sucre both do a fine job. The former, open Tuesday to Sunday 9am to 5pm, was donated to the Fundacion Mariana de Jesus by its owner, Dona Maria after her death in 1987. Guided tours around the nineteenth century house with its three patios offer a wonderful peek at the high society world of Quito, with its European furniture, sewing rooms, drawing rooms and salons. The house of the dashing liberator Grand Marshal Antonio Jose de Sucre, [Calle Sucre at the corner of Venezuela ; open Tuesday to Saturday 8:30am to 4:30pm] is another fine late-colonial house. Though much of the exhibits pertain to military history, there are also many impressive examples of period furniture and painting.

The Plaza de Santo Domingo lies to the southwest of Sucre's house. The square, enigmatically floodlit at night, is dominated by the Iglesia Santo Domingo, one of Quito's earliest. The interior and altar were redesigned in the nineteenth century, considerably altering its style. The Chapel of the Rosary to the right of the altar is still a delight, and the adjoining Museo Fray Pedro Bedon showcases many beautiful Dominican treasures from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. Open daily from 8am to 5pm.

At the western corner of the square at Guayaquil, one of the town's most picturesque streets, La Ronda, loops down. The name comes from either 'rondar' [to patrol] in Spanish [it once marked the city's southern limit] or was so named because it was once famous for its serenading musicians. Though rather rundown and unsafe these days, there are some charming Spanish-style houses with balconies, reminiscent of Barrio Santa Cruz in Seville, with tile portraits of famous musicians and composers adorning some of the houses' walls.

The other museums and streets of old Quito are found to the east of Plaza San Francisco. At Cuenca and pedestrian Chile stands the Iglesia La Merced, built to commemorate the eruptions of Volcan Pichincha that threatened to destroy the city. Paintings, amid the pink, white and gold leaf extravaganza inside, show scenes of erupting volcanoes. The cloisters of the adjoining convent are especially beautiful. One block across at the corner Cuenca and Mejia, lies the Museo Nacional de Arte Colonial. This stylish colonial mansion, once the home of the Marques de Villacis, contains a good collection of work by some of the best artists of the School of Quito, including a striking Virgin of Sorrows by Caspicara. The museum was due to be restored and some of the collection re-housed at the time of writing, but usual hours are Tuesday to Friday 10am to 6pm, and Saturday 10 am to 2 pm. For more weeping Virgins and bleeding Christs, the nearby Casa de Benalcazar houses a worthy collection on Benalcazar and Olmedo, though the beautiful courtyard and restored house are arguably more appealing. Lunchtime concerts are sometimes held in the courtyard, and the museum opens Monday to Friday 9am to noon and 2pm to 6pm.

The last noteworthy museum in the old town is the Antiguo Cuartel de la Real Audencia, which isn't well signposted and therefore hard to find. It's on Espejo 1147 and Benalcazar, just off the Plaza de la Independencia, open Tuesday to Friday 8 am to 4 pm, and 9 am to 2 pm weekends. The house has undergone various incarnations as a Jesuit mansion, a barracks [cuartel] of the Spanish garrison, and then as municipal offices. The collection displays many fine paintings of the Quito School. In what used to be prison cells in the basement, a gory waxworks made in France depicts the execution of nationalist martyrs in 1809 who were imprisoned here for nine months.

Walking the old town, you can't help but notice the large statue on its westerly hill, the Panecillo ['little loaf of bread']. Crossing the large Avenida 24 de Mayo, you come to the foot of the hill, formerly a sacred Inca site for sun worship. Today the hill is dominated by the huge, winged statue, of the Virgen de Quito trampling on a dragon, the city's most prominent landmark. It's a stiff,