Lima, the capital of Peru, is a sprawling conurbation that many try to avoid but time permitting it’s well worth at least a three-day stopover. Lima Centro, which has been cleaned up and restored, centres around the Plaza de Armas, now a UNESCO-designated world heritage site, and the streets that lead off it are lined with old colonial buildings with attractive overhanging balconies.

Once THE most important city in South America, particularly during the 16th and 17th centuries, Lima was also considered to be the continent’s most beautiful and was originally nicknamed the “city of the kings”. When Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro arrived in 1535 Lima was already an important commercial centre which went on to become one of only two Spanish viceroyalties in the new world. It boasted a wealth of mansions, churches and palaces and was also home to the continent’s first university, the University of San Marcos, founded in 1551.

However, its wealth and prosperity didn’t last forever. Once the Spanish had created another vice royalty in the Argentine city of Rio de la Plata and the city was shook by a huge earthquake in 1746, it entered a period of steady decline. Some commented that even after Lima was largely rebuilt it was never able to achieve its former glory again. That said, the Plaza de Armas and its surrounding buildings remain impressive such as the Cathedral, the Santo Domingo monastery and the Palacio Torre Tagle. Besides some fine colonial architecture Lima boasts some of Peru’s best museums which include the Rafael Larco Museo with its excellent collection of Pre-Colombian art, and the Museo de la Nacion which explains the history of the country’s ancient civilisations.

One of the only disadvantages of Lima is its weather in that for several months of the year, from May through November, the city is engulfed in a greyish fog-cum-smog or, what the locals call, the garua.