Tbilisi

Tbilisi sits on both banks of the Mtkvari in a narrow valley, hemmed in by wooded ridges, and that shape explains most of the city. The historic centre is small enough to walk: Narikala Fortress on the ridge above, the brick domes of the Abanotubani sulphur baths in the gorge below, and within a few hundred metres of one another a mosque, a synagogue and an Armenian church.

A second day opens the city up. The Mtatsminda funicular climbs to a park and a terrace high above the rooftops. The Georgian National Museum on Rustaveli holds the gold of the Colchian burials and the permanent exhibition on the Soviet occupation. Holy Trinity Cathedral, huge and modern, stands over Avlabari on the opposite bank. On the green edge of town, Turtle Lake sits beside the Open Air Museum of Ethnography, where timber houses brought from every province are reassembled among the trees, and further north the columns of the Chronicle of Georgia rise above the Tbilisi Sea.

Seasons matter less here than anywhere else in the country, since everything is open year-round. July and August are heavy — the valley traps heat and the afternoons drag — so sightseeing works best early and late in the day. Spring and autumn are the good months. Winter is mild and snow rarely lasts more than a day or two.

Two days cover the centre comfortably, three if you want a bathhouse, a museum and an unhurried evening. Most visitors also treat Tbilisi as a base: Mtskheta is half an hour out, Gori a little over an hour, Kakheti under two. It is both a destination and the place where a Georgian road trip begins and ends.