What's a good 3-day itinerary for Lisbon?

Day 1 stays east. Start at the Sé Cathedral by 8:30 AM — the Romanesque nave is dark and cool even in July, and you'll likely have it to yourselves. Walk uphill through Alfama toward Castelo de São Jorge and arrive by 10 AM. The castle ramparts give you the single best orientation view of Lisbon: terracotta rooftops tumbling down to the Tagus, cargo ships sliding beneath the Ponte 25 de Abril, Belém a grey smudge in the western haze. Worth the ten euros for that alone. Come down a different way than you went up — Alfama's lanes double back on themselves, and getting turned around is part of the point. Reach Páteo 13 by 12:30 PM. They grill sardines and sea bass over charcoal on the pavement outside; the smoke and salt hit you before the sign does. After lunch, Panteão Nacional needs twenty minutes. If it's Tuesday or Saturday, the Feira da Ladra flea market runs right next to it. End at Miradouro da Graça by 5 PM with a cold beer from the kiosk. The light turns copper around six.

Day 2 heads west to Belém. Take the commuter train from Cais do Sodré — four minutes, less than two euros, and you skip the packed tram entirely. Be at Mosteiro dos Jerónimos by 9 AM. The Manueline cloisters look like coral reef carved from limestone, every column a different pattern, and the space is the finest enclosed room in the country. Give it ninety minutes. Walk to Pastéis de Belém and order a half-dozen pastéis de nata straight from the oven — the shells shatter when you bite through, the custard barely set. Dust with cinnamon, not sugar. The Berardo Collection at Centro Cultural de Belém is the overlooked move: free admission, serious modern-art holdings, full air conditioning on a hot afternoon. Torre de Belém at 3 PM is more about the waterfront walk than the tower itself — the interior rooms are cramped and the queue tends to be long. Head back to Cais do Sodré by 6 PM and eat at Time Out Market. Overpriced by local standards, but the variety is honest and you can sample three things without committing to a full sit-down meal.

Day 3 stays on the western hills. Coffee at Café A Brasileira in Chiado by 9:30 AM — it draws crowds, but the espresso is still properly bitter and the bronze Fernando Pessoa statue outside is the right kind of sentimental. Walk through Livraria Bertrand, which has been selling books since 1732 and smells like old paper and floor wax. North to Príncipe Real by 11 AM — the neighbourhood has the strongest independent shops in the city, and on Saturdays the organic market fills the garden under a massive cedar tree. Lunch at Taberna da Rua das Flores around 1 PM: petiscos of cured pork, salt-cod croquetes, roasted peppers slicked with olive oil. Reserve a day ahead or show up at 12:30 and wait at the counter with a glass of vinho verde. Jardim Botânico in the afternoon is a fifteen-minute walk, surprisingly overgrown in the best way, thick with the smell of wet earth and eucalyptus. By 8:30 PM, walk to Tasca do Chico in Bairro Alto for fado. No cover charge, but you order food and drinks. The singing starts around 9:30. Small room, raw voices, and the sound hits you in the chest.

The hills will tire you more than the distance suggests. Comfortable shoes with rubber soles matter — the calçada portuguesa cobblestones are beautiful but treacherous when damp, and hard on flat soles regardless. Tram 28 is famous and miserable: packed shoulder-to-shoulder with real pickpocket risk. The 12E tram loop covers similar ground with a fraction of the crowd. Dinner starts late — 8 PM is normal, 9 PM is fine, 7 PM marks you as a foreigner. Tipping is simple: round up or leave a euro or two at sit-down spots. Nobody expects fifteen percent.