1. IT'S THE MOST USABLE CITY ON EARTH
The last time I went to Lisbon was in 1992. We arrived by ship in the predawn, winter darkness and I got none of the sense of location that one gets when flying in, as I did a few weeks ago.
The first thing that struck me this time was that the airport is almost in the heart of the city, and not out in the boonies, as most of the rest of the world's major airports are. This meant a pleasant 5km bus ride to my hotel on Avenida Almirante Reis.
And when I left things a bit late (again!) on departure day, the taxi ride - in one of those cool, black Lisbon cabs with the green roofs - to the airport took 11 minutes and cost €4.
2. IT'S THE BEST VALUE IN WESTERN EUROPE
Portugal was clobbered in the financial crash of 2008 and was one of the first eurozone countries to taste the realities of austerity. This had a profound effect on prices and while Portugal has always been good value, it is still markedly so compared to other European countries where travelling on the rand is only slightly nicer than being mugged with a baseball bat - as a cursory check of the rand/euro rate online will show.I haggled my daily rate at the four-star Empire Lisbon boutique hotel down by half to €70 per night and spent about €10-15 every day on one big dinner. Always eat where the locals do and stay out of the tourist-clogged restaurants (you can't miss them).
For transport, I bought a €40 Lisboa Card which gave me 72 hours of free travel on buses, trams and the metro as well as free entry to many museums and big discounts on other attractions all over the city.
3. THE LIGHT IS PERFECT
Every Lisboeta - people born and bred in Lisbon - rhapsodises about the light, and they should. Northern Portugal can be dank and clammy; the Mediterranean climate of the south can be bright and harsh. But Lisbon's light is like poured silver - not too bright, not too grey. Maybe it's the way the sun hits the black-and-white cobbled pavements, or the way the dawn reflects off the azulejo - the exquisite ceramic tile exteriors of almost all the city's older buildings. Maybe it's softened in the cool air flowing off the Rio Tejo - or the River Tagus - but the light here is like no other place I've ever been."It's the perfect colour," says Humberto Ricardo, a Lisboeta who took me on a three-hour walking tour of the neighbourhoods he grew up in. "It and the sound of Portuguese guitar is everything that our soul is about."
4. THE ARCHITECTURELisbon is a city of verticals and curves, an idea given its fullest expression in the narrow alleyways and steep staircases of the old neighbourhoods such Alfama, Bica, Bairro Alto and Chiado.
Almost every building in the city was built after the great earthquake of 1755 - and the subsequent fire - that flattened and burnt Lisbon to the ground, destroyed Vasco de Gama's expedition records and paintings by Rubens and Correggio, and killed as many as 40,000 of its people.
The Lisbon that rose from the ruins - with its wide, tree-lined streets and large public squares - are the result of the visionary reconstruction proposed by Manuel da Maia, chief engineer to the king of Portugal - and something of a heroic figure even today.
The squares are blissful places to relax when it gets hot. They are also central to the city's sense of community, where people gather in the afternoons to talk and walk their dogs - if they have them - and maybe sip an icy cerveja while nibbling on tremocos - marinated lupini beans, the high-protein snack brought to Portugal by the Romans.5. THE MUSIC
Music - as my guides never failed to point out - is close to every Lisboeta's heart. This is, after all, the land of fado - the melancholic songs about lost loves and the hardships of daily life. It is in Carlos Paredes' guitar and in the songs of Jose Afonso, whose mournful ballad Grândola Vila Morena - about a small country village - was played on the radio one midnight in April 1974 as the signal for the army to leave their barracks and overthrow the hated dictatorship under Marcello Caetano.
LISTEN | Paul Ash speaks to some Lisboetas - people born and raised in Lisbon - about what makes their city so magical*I learnt this all sitting in "The Megastore", a tiny shop belonging to LP trader and band promoter Nuno Efe in the Largo Intendente, just off the Avenida Almirante Reis. Efe sat me down for the afternoon and played me seven-inch singles of ballads, Portuguese punk and ska and rock, and rare Angolan highlife, pausing every now and then to chat to people having coffee in the square outside. Hours flew by until I left with an armful of singles - enlightened and enthralled by what I had heard. And I don't even own a record player.6. THE TRAMS
The little four-wheel trams are the century-old relics that keep old Lisbon moving. They are the only trams that can negotiate the narrow winding streets of the old parts of the city - the hills are too steep for the new trams and the bends too tight for even most of the buses.
But trams 28 and 12 are more than just quaint transport - they are icons of Lisbon. Since the tourist queues to actually get aboard Tram 28 can ruin your day, do as I did and meet Brazil-born journalist and author Nysse Arruda outside the magnificent Basilica de Estrela and take her tour - "The Beauty of Lisbon-Tramway 28, a voyage through History". Arruda, an engaging guide with an abiding passion for her adopted home town, bubbles over with enthusiasm for the creaking, clanking tramcar as it whines and grinds and rattles through the streets.
7. THE VIEWSLisbon is built on hills, which means it has some of the best city views in the world - but you have to work for them. The climb from the Praça do Comércio, the vast main square on the Tagus River, through the edge of the old Alfama neighbourhood to the Castle of St George is a breathtaking hike - in every way - but the sunset view across the red-tiled roofs of the city and the Tagus estuary gives a sense of place that no other city has ever done for me.The view from the castle is the obvious one but there are others. Walking down a staircase between old houses in the Bica, I would suddenly catch a glimpse of a freighter ploughing up the Tagus or of the graceful red span of the 25 de Abril Bridge, and I would wish - not for the first time - that I was a Lisboeta too.PLAN YOUR TRIP
GETTING THERE: Turkish Airlines flies daily between Joburg and Istanbul, with a fast connection to Lisbon. A test booking through turkishairlines.com for early October gave a return fare of $926 (R12,390).
WHERE TO STAY: The Empire Lisbon is a four-star boutique hotel in the city centre. €40 per night, but ask for a better rate. Includes breakfast.
WHAT TO DO: "The Beauty of Lisbon-Tramway 28" (R542 per person for 3.5 hours); "LisboaLove Walking Tour" (R295 per person, two hours); and "Discover Lisbon with a photographer" (R542 per person, 3 hours). Find them all at airbnb.com/experiences.
GET: The Lisboa Card (24 hours for €19, 48 hours for €32, 72 hours for €40) is available from all Ask Me Lisboa offices - but it's easiest to get it at the airport. 
• Ash flew to Lisbon courtesy of Turkish Airlines.
* The original hang drum music used in our podcast was composed and performed by Lisbon-based musician Nuno Moreno. The track '1116' is from his album 'Groove A Zen Sound', available directly from Nuno, e-mail grooveazensound@gmail.com...