Tbilisi

Tbilisi is Georgia’s capital and its own self-governing city — not one of the country’s regions but a place apart, set in a bend of the Mtkvari river in the middle of the country, and it is where nearly every trip we plan begins and ends. The airport is twenty minutes from the centre, and the city is small enough to cross on foot, which is the best way to meet it.

The heart of it is the Old Town, a tangle of lanes below Narikala fortress where wooden balconies lean over the street and a church, a mosque and a synagogue stand within a few minutes of one another. Ride the cable car up to Narikala for the whole city at once, then walk down to the sulphur baths of Abanotubani, where the domed bathhouses have drawn travellers to their warm water for centuries. Book a private room and soak; it is the oldest thing to do in Tbilisi and still one of the best.

Above the river, the newer districts — Sololaki, Vera, Vake — are where the good coffee, the wine bars and the small kitchens are, and where you feel the city as Georgians live it rather than as a museum.

Tbilisi is at its warmest and easiest in late spring and early autumn, when the courtyards are mild and the evenings run long. Midsummer is hot; winter is quiet and cheaper, with the balconies under frost.

It suits the start of almost any journey — a couple stepping off the plane, a family finding its feet, a wine trip gathering itself before the drive east. We usually give it two or three unhurried days before the road takes you on.