Melbourne itinerary for first-timers

The city's meeting place on the river: the angular square of galleries and screens opposite the yellow dome and clocks of Flinders Street Station, Melbourne's grand old railway terminus.

• Federation Square
• Flinders Street Station clocks
• St Paul's Cathedral

Narrow lanes off Flinders Lane covered in layer upon layer of graffiti and murals, from Duckboard Place and AC/DC Lane to the famous Hosier Lane.

• Hosier Lane
• AC/DC Lane
• Duckboard Place

The art changes all the time; come back on another day and some walls will be different.

Melbourne's café culture at its most concentrated: the mosaic floors and glass roof of the 1890s Block Arcade, the Royal Arcade, and the tables crammed into Degraves Street and Centre Place.

• Block Arcade
• Royal Arcade
• Degraves Street
• Centre Place

Little Bourke Street's red gates and lanterns, one of the oldest Chinatowns in the Western world, next to the Bourke Street Mall and the cobbled restaurant strip of Hardware Lane.

• Little Bourke Street
• Bourke Street Mall
• Hardware Lane

A huge 19th-century market of sheds and halls: fresh produce, a meat and fish hall, delis and rows of general stalls, at the top of Elizabeth Street.

• Meat and fish hall
• Deli hall
• Produce sheds

The market is closed on Mondays and Wednesdays; mornings are best for the food halls.

The domed La Trobe Reading Room of the State Library Victoria, free to visit, and the shopping streets of Swanston Street and the Bourke Street Mall below it.

• La Trobe Reading Room
• Swanston Street
• Bourke Street Mall

Victorian gardens around the Royal Exhibition Building, a World Heritage-listed hall built for the international exhibitions of the 1880s, with the Melbourne Museum next door.

• Royal Exhibition Building
• Carlton Gardens
• Melbourne Museum

The heart of Melbourne's Little Italy in Carlton, a street of alfresco cafés and Italian restaurants that fills up on warm evenings.

• Lygon Street cafés
• Argyle Square
• Carlton terraces

The inner-north's bohemian streets: vintage shops, cafés and street art along Brunswick Street, Smith Street and Gertrude Street, then the elm avenues of Fitzroy Gardens on the way back to the city.

• Brunswick Street
• Smith Street
• Gertrude Street
• Fitzroy Gardens

The promenade along the south bank of the river, with the Arts Centre spire and the National Gallery of Victoria at one end and cafés and views back across the water to the city.

• Southbank Promenade
• Arts Centre Melbourne
• National Gallery of Victoria

The great war memorial on the edge of the Kings Domain, with a balcony view straight back up St Kilda Road to the city, next to the Royal Botanic Gardens.

• Shrine balcony view
• Kings Domain
• Royal Botanic Gardens

Melbourne's seaside: the grinning entrance of Luna Park, the cake shops of Acland Street, the beach and the long pier with the city skyline across the bay.

• St Kilda Pier
• Luna Park
• Acland Street
• St Kilda Beach

Little penguins come ashore at dusk on the breakwater at the end of the pier; follow the volunteers' rules and don't use flash.