Portugal cruise with Silversea: Exploring Vila Nova de Gaia, the home of Port wine

Porto is one of Europe's oldest and most photogenic cities and whether you're staying a while or calling in on a cruise, it quickly has you under its spell. The UNESCO World Heritage-listed historic core is a peach, all blue-and-white-tiled baroque churches and colourful, red-roofed buildings lining steep, cobbled lanes that weave down to the bars and restaurants strung along the north bank of the River Douro. Having been seduced by this city on previous visits (the first time as a callow backpacker), I've returned on an upscale cruise with Silversea, and have the afternoon to mooch around. But my plan is to leave Porto immediately.

My target instead is Vila Nova de Gaia, a neighbouring city on the opposite side of the Douro, just a few hundred metres away as the gull flies. Gaia is home to the bulk of the famous Port wine lodges, and tourists, especially cruise passengers, are typically bussed over for tours and tastings before heading straight back to Porto or their ship. But there are now more reasons than ever to linger in Gaia, many centred around WOW, a new, wander-worthy cultural district spanning a series of converted, centuries-old wine cellars and warehouses.

Head over on a water taxi from Porto's riverside Ribeira area or on foot (or tram) across the Ponte de Dom Luis I, a double-deck metal arch bridge built in the 1880s by German engineer Theophile Seyrig, a business partner of Gustave Eiffel. You can walk the bridge's lower level, but the upper deck grants the best views, with Porto's fabulously jumbled skyline, the winding Douro and the advertising hoardings of Gaia's wine lodges (Sandeman, Taylor's, Calem and more) vying for your attention.

When you reach Gaia, you'll see a cable car bobbing down to its waterfront. But the most atmospheric route is via a tangle of stairways and alleys, some enlivened with street art and azulejos (Portuguese tiles). Follow the signs to WOW, which opened — as the World of Wine — mid-pandemic with an assortment of diversions: seven themed interactive museums, 12 bars, cafes and restaurants, galleries and events spaces.

Wine naturally plays a major role here. There's a wine school where you can learn the ropes about oenology and an experience pairing chocolate with Port and other wines reared from grapes grown in the nearby Douro Valley. But other museums focus on different Portuguese traditions. One showcases the fashions and footwear crafted by designers here down the years, another on Portugal being the planet's largest producer of cork. A museum tracing the fortunes of the Porto region through the ages features a replica of a vintage city tram fitted with digital screens charting episodes from history. WOW stages temporary exhibitions, with a current one (until October 31) displaying 100 snaps by American Neal Slavin, one of the few foreign photographers allowed to capture Portugal in the 1960s when the country was under the Salazar dictatorship.

WOW's dining draws include a steakhouse serving beef from northern Portugal's Minho region and a fish restaurant plying cod, octopus and other Atlantic catches. There are venues for tapas, wine and cheeseboards, and coffee and desserts, including pasteis de nata (Portuguese custard tarts). You can also grab a bite by Lemon Plaza, which resembles a typical Porto square with brightly-hued faux-building frontages.

More food and drink spots flank the skinny lanes threading from WOW to Gaia's wide, spacious waterfront, where temptations teem in Mercado Beira-Rio, a traditional covered market reborn as a hip food hall. As well as fruit and vegetable vendors, a butchers and fishmongers, it has stalls specialising in local staples like the francesinha — a gut-busting cheesy, meaty sandwich draped in a beery tomato sauce — and tripe, a classic dish of northern Portugal (folk here aren't nicknamed tripeiros, tripe eaters, for nothing).

Other vendors conjure more refined dishes, including vegan fare and flavours from Brazil and Portugal. You can sup craft beers and various Portuguese wines. What's lovely about the market — and most establishments lining Gaia's riverfront — is the abundance of alfresco seating, so you can drink, dine and chill with heart-warming vistas of Porto.