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Start your day at the top of Stasicratous and window-shop your way south past ranks of designer stores, then double back along busy Archiepiskopou Makariou III, stopping for a cold drink at one of the street’s hip cafés.

Cross Plateia Eleftherias and enter Laiki Geitonia (see Laiki Geitonia). This area has been restored as a sanitized version of an old-fashioned Nicosia neighbourhood. You’ll find souvenirs aplenty here – some authentic, some amusing and some trashy. The Diakroniki Gallery at Aristokyprou 2B is a good place to seek out original and facsimile prints and engravings. Nearby, at Ippokratous 2, you can find copies of Byzantine silverware at the Leventis Museum Gift shop.

Nicosia’s main shopping street, Odos Lidras (Ledra Street), runs north from Laiki Geitonia. It too is pedestrianized, but it could hardly be more different with its big-name department stores and smaller shops doing a thriving trade in copies of designer sunglasses.

At Plateia Faneromenis, turn right and wander across the square to the Central Market, off Plateia Palaiou Dimarchiou, for a look at how the locals shop: fruit and vegetables, fresh olives, feta cheese and dried herbs are sold from dozens of stalls in this venerable emporium.

If all this food has made you hungry, enjoy a fish lunch at Kalymnos Fish Tavern (see Kalymnos Fish Tavern).

This attractive Lebanese restaurant, decorated with tapestries and wood floors, serves wonderful grilled meat and fish accompanied by spicy sauces.

Set in an old house, this traditional taverna serves excellent meze . In summer, dining is available in the pleasant courtyard or on the balcony if you book ahead.

One of the oldest Christian communities in Cyprus, the chapel here dates from the 15th century. It lay in ruins before being restored in the 1960s.

In the deserted village of Agios Sozomenos is the medieval church of Agios Mamas, with Gothic arches.

Not so long ago, Aglandjia, which dates back as far as 3888 BC, was a village community in its own right, thriving on agriculture, stockbreeding and quarrying. Today, although it has become virtually a suburb of Nicosia, it still retains a village ambience, with a handful of pretty 18th-century churches. Among these is the one-domed, arch-roofed Agiou Georgiou church, which contains a woodcut iconostasis decorated with images of baskets and flowers.

Dali is a farming village that takes its name from the ancient city-state of Idalion. Aphrodite’s lover, Adonis, was killed by the boar of Idalion and the red flowers that bloom here are deemed tokens of his death.

Elegant French restaurant serving classic Gallic cuisine such as frogs’ legs and duck à l’orange . Live piano music at night.

A treasury of archaeological finds here, uncovered from sites all over Cyprus, wonderfully illustrate the island’s historic past and make this the most fascinating of all its many museums. Exhibits highlight the marvellous skills of sculptors, metalworkers, potters, painters and other craftsmen across more than four millennia (see Cyprus Museum, Nicosia).