Tbilisi

Tbilisi is a city of steam, wine and warm welcomes, folded into a river valley beneath a hilltop fortress. Its heart is the Old Town, where wooden balconies lean over cobbled lanes and the domed brick bathhouses of Abanotubani still draw bathers to the sulfur springs that, legend says, founded the city. Ride the cable car up to the Narikala fortress for the view, then descend into a labyrinth of courtyards, churches and buzzing regenerated quarters — Sololaki, Vera, and the old sewing factory reborn as Fabrika. This is the cradle of wine, made here in buried clay qvevri for eight thousand years, and Georgian hospitality is legendary: a supra feast of khinkali dumplings and molten khachapuri, wine poured freely and endless toasts led by a tamada. Affordable, soulful and gloriously easygoing, Tbilisi surprises almost everyone who comes. Come for the baths and the wine; stay for a table that never seems to empty.

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