A walk through Fontainhas, Panjim's Latin quarter

Fontainhas rewards slow looking. Most houses share a vocabulary that your guide will help you read, and once you know it, you see it everywhere in Goa.

Colour was once regulated: in Portuguese times, houses had to be repainted after every monsoon, and the strong ochres, blues, greens and reds were partly a way of keeping lime-washed walls fresh. Window frames and mouldings were picked out in white. Many façades carry small azulejo panels, painted tiles showing a saint, the house name or the family's name. The street names are also on tiles, in Portuguese and Konkani.

• Balcão: a covered porch at the front door with built-in seats, where families sat in the evening
• Oyster-shell windows: panes made of flattened windowpane-oyster shells, which soften the light
• Pillars and pilasters: in laterite, plastered and painted, framing doors and windows
• Red Mangalore tile roofs, with wide overhangs against the monsoon
• Iron balconies and carved wooden railings on the upper floors

This is the loop we use on our private walks. It is about 2.5 km, mostly flat, with one climb to Altinho by steps or a gentle road. Start at 8 am, when the lanes are in shade and quiet, and the bakeries are open.

Begin at the Ourem creek, near the Patto bridge, and walk into the quarter along the main street. Turn into the side lanes, Rua 31 de Janeiro and those around it, where the houses are closest and most colourful. Continue north to Sao Tome, the older administrative part of the quarter with the former post office building and its small square. Then turn back to the Chapel of St Sebastian at the heart of Fontainhas. From there, climb the steps to Altinho for the views, and walk down past the Archbishop's Palace to the Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception.

The chapel is the quarter's spiritual centre, a small whitewashed building with a simple façade at the end of a lane. It dates from the 19th century. Its best-known possession is a large crucifix that once hung in the Palace of the Inquisition at Old Goa. Unusually, Christ's eyes are open, said to have been intended to intimidate those brought before the tribunal. When the Inquisition was abolished in 1812, the crucifix eventually found its way here.

Like many Goan chapels, it holds an annual feast with a procession through the lanes and is the focus of neighbourhood life. If the door is open, step inside quietly; if a service is in progress, wait outside. Your guide can explain the role of chapels and crosses in the life of each Goan ward.

Altinho, the little height, is the hill that rises behind Fontainhas. It was the residential area of senior officials, and it still holds the Archbishop's Palace and several large houses in gardens. A walk along its upper road gives views over the red roofs of Fontainhas to the Ourem creek and the Mandovi. If you prefer not to climb, the car can drive you up and meet you at the top.

From Altinho, walk or drive down to the Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, the white landmark at the centre of Panjim. A church has stood here since the 16th century, rebuilt in the 17th, and the double stairway was added in the 19th. The great bell in its tower is said to have come from the ruined Church of St Augustine at Old Goa. The church is lit at night in December for the feast of the Immaculate Conception on 8 December.

Part of the pleasure of Fontainhas is stopping. Small cafés and bakeries in and around the quarter sell coffee, poee and chouriço pão, and slices of bebinca, Goa's layered coconut cake. A few galleries sell hand-painted tiles and prints; some old houses have become small guesthouses and restaurants serving Goan home cooking at lunch.

For a longer meal, we book a family-run Goan restaurant in the old town for fish curry rice or a xacuti. In the evening, the quarter's small taverns serve feni and Goan bar snacks, and the lanes look different again, lit by street lamps and the windows of the houses.

With an extra hour, continue from the church to the Mandovi. The riverside road, the Dayanand Bandodkar Marg, runs past the Old Secretariat, a building that began as a palace of the Adil Shahi sultans of Bijapur before the Portuguese arrived, later served as the viceroys' residence and then housed the state government. Its sloping tiled roof and balconies look over the river toward Betim and the Reis Magos fort.

Nearby stands the statue of Abbé Faria, a Goan priest who became known in Paris in the early 19th century for his studies of hypnosis, shown with a woman under his spell. The municipal garden, the Azad Maidan with its memorial, and the old customs buildings complete the walk. In the evening, this is where Panjim strolls, and the riverfront is the setting for the Carnival parade in February and, in recent years, for Serendipity Arts Festival in December.

Fontainhas is a residential area. Most houses are private homes, so photograph from the street, do not step onto porches uninvited, and ask before photographing residents. Weekday mornings are quietest; Sundays bring church-goers and families. The quarter is best from November to February; in the monsoon, the colours are fresh after rain but showers are heavy. Wear comfortable shoes, carry water, and avoid the walk between noon and 3 pm from March to May.

A guide makes a great difference. Without one, Fontainhas is a pleasant stroll; with one who knows the families, the history and the details of the houses, it becomes the best introduction to Goa we know. Our walks are private, last two to two and a half hours, and can be combined with Old Goa, 20 minutes away, the same morning.