The Old Centre — sometimes Centrul Vechi, sometimes Lipscani — is the medieval and 19th-century core of Bucharest, pedestrianised in the 2000s and now the city's nightlife heart. The historic ruins of the Old Princely Court are here, along with the city's oldest surviving church (Curtea Veche), the carved-stone marvel of Stavropoleos Monastery, the yellow glass arcade of Pasajul Macca-Vilacrosse, and the spectacular Cărturești Carusel bookshop.
At night the whole neighbourhood becomes one long terrace; by day it is excellent for slow walking, especially the side streets off Lipscani where the bars thin out and the surviving 19th-century buildings have not yet been gentrified. It is touristy but unavoidably central — and after the demolitions of the Ceaușescu era, what is left feels miraculous.