The fine residences along the Rua de Portugal are covered in beautiful azulejo earthenware tiles, giving Sao Luis the feel of being Lisbon but with a hotter sun. There is even a great theatre where, as in the city of Manaus on the Amazon, Italian opera companies used to perform. The city has literary pretensions, and European residents say they speak the best Portuguese in Brazil.In 1997 the city was recognised by Unesco as a world heritage site and work is continuing on the restoration of 3,000 buildings. Across the bridge from the old town stretch miles of white beaches, or praias, from where fishermen sail out in their traditional wooden craft, later selling their catch in local markets.Whites have never been in a majority in Sao Luis, and legends of slave times persist. Apparently in punishment for her cruelty to slaves, the ghost of Dona Ana Jansen is condemned to ride through the streets of the city every Friday night in a coach drawn by headless horses with a headless coachman Many townspeople swear they have seen her. Then there is the Sleeping Snake, a monstrous beast which sleeps in tunnels under the city and will one day wake up and destroy it. No one has seen it, though you can hear it if you listen closely at one of the public fountains.The Centre of Popular Culture, on four floors of one of the city's old residences, is the finest museum I have seen anywhere of the arts and crafts of the African slaves, showing the blending of their native religions with the Christianity into which their masters perfunctorily baptised them.

The centre also has a great store of the delicate and elegant crafts of the Indians who were condemned, like the black slaves, to work for the settlers.An hour's voyage across St Mark's Bay is Alcantara, where there is a military base from which the Brazilian air force has been trying for some years to launch a satellite, and from where one day the country will enter the space age.The town of Alcantara, once busier and richer than Sao Luis itself, was the home of sugar and cotton barons. But it declined, and is now an incongruous neighbour to the 21st-century endeavours of the base up the road, again underlining the contrasts of Brazil. In one corner of the town are the ruins of two uncompleted houses that wealthy rival families started to build in the 19th century. Each wanted to have the honour of playing host to Emperor Pedro II of Brazil. The rivalry culminated in the head of one family murdering the head of the other, and the emperor refused to come at all.

The people of Alcantara still hold a street celebration every year for the visit that never happened, dressing children up as the imperial couple.The Rua das Amarguras ­ the Street of Bitterness ­ is a now-deserted thoroughfare in Alcantara named, the locals say, after the feelings of the wealthy families who saw their children go off to their educations and better lives in Europe, often never to return.. Nara, in the centre of Japan near Osaka and Kobe, is the country's second most historic town. It was once the capital city back in the eighth century, and despite having lost this rank, its historic importance has left it with masses of exquisite architecture, which makes it an important part of a Japanese itinerary. And being close to Osaka's Kansai airport means that it can be a delightful way of dealing with a stopover to New Zealand. Of course, even despite its economic difficulties, the country's reputation for being pricey is well deserved, so don't forget your credit card Nara, in the centre of Japan near Osaka and Kobe, is the country's second most historic town. It was once the capital city back in the eighth century, and despite having lost this rank, its historic importance has left it with masses of exquisite architecture, which makes it an important part of a Japanese itinerary.