A Sunday in Évora, an hour and a quarter from Badajoz.

Évora is an hour and a quarter from Badajoz along the A6, closer than Seville or Cáceres, and it is one of the most complete cities in Portugal for a Sunday: a World Heritage walled centre that fits into a stroll, Roman columns in the middle of a square, a granite cathedral with a terrace over the rooftops and a chapel lined with bones. This plan starts early at the cathedral, when the terrace is almost empty, leaves lunch for Portuguese time and closes the afternoon following the arches of the aqueduct. From Mérida, it is a little under two hours.

The day, hour by hour

Stop times are Portuguese time, one hour behind Spain.

8:30 (Spanish time) · Leave. From Badajoz, along the A6. When you cross the border the clock goes back an hour: you reach Évora at 8:45 Portuguese time. Park outside the wall; inside, many streets are for residents only.

9:15 · Cathedral, cloister and terrace. The Sé is a Gothic granite fortress at the top of the centre. The full ticket, €5, includes the cloister, the sacred art museum and the climb to the terrace, the highest point in the city, by narrow stairs. It is open daily from 9:00 to 17:00. Under-12s with their parents do not pay.

10:30 · Roman temple and Diana garden. A few steps from the cathedral, the 1st-century Corinthian columns in an open square, with no ticket office. Next to it, the Diana garden gives shade and views over the plain.

11:00 · The centre on foot, to Praça do Giraldo. Go down Rua 5 de Outubro to the main square, with its arcades and the marble fountain. Two unhurried hours through the white streets inside the wall.

13:30 · Lunch at O Antão. On Sunday, many eateries in the centre close: the Adega do Alentejano and the Café Alentejo, for example, do not open. O Antão does: for lunch from Wednesday to Sunday, from 12:00 to 15:00, on Rua João de Deus, two minutes from Praça do Giraldo. It is a house of about 48 seats with an inner courtyard next to an old well, serving traditional Alentejo and Portuguese cooking with no published menu: ask for the dish of the day. Book by phone or email. If you stay for dinner, Loios, the restaurant of the Pousada Convento Évora next to the Roman temple, is open every evening from 19:30 to 22:00, Sunday too.

15:30 · Chapel of Bones. Next to the 17th-century church of São Francisco, with walls and pillars covered in bones and skulls from the convent's former burials. The single ticket costs €7, €5 up to age 25 and over-65s, €15 for a family, and includes the museum, the terrace and the nativity scene collection. The church is free. In winter it closes at 17:00; in summer, at 18:30.

16:30 · The Água de Prata aqueduct. Following the 16th-century arches towards the north of the centre, on Rua do Cano they drop to street level and there are houses, doorways and shops wedged between them. An hour's flat walk, back through the old Jewish quarter.

17:45 · Return. You reach Badajoz around eight in the evening, Spanish time.

If it rains or is hot

The cathedral, São Francisco and the Chapel of Bones are indoors and fill the morning and first afternoon. In July and August, do the cathedral and the temple first thing, lunch under cover and leave the aqueduct for sunset, when the heat drops and the temple is lit.

With children

Under-12s do not pay at the cathedral, and they like the terrace. The temple and the Diana garden are open-air and have no opening hours. The Chapel of Bones is striking: teenagers love it; with small children, think about it. The aqueduct is flat and works with a pushchair.

With a dog

The walk through the centre, the temple and the aqueduct can be done with a dog. They are not allowed into the cathedral or São Francisco.