Barranco sits between Miraflores and the Pacific, two kilometres south of the centre of Lima nightlife. Built as a 19th-century seaside summer colony, it preserves a row of pastel-coloured casas-quinta — Italian-influenced villas with verandas and palm gardens — that have been converted into restaurants, boutique hotels, and galleries. The famous Puente de los Suspiros ("Bridge of Sighs"), a small wooden footbridge over a ravine, is the symbolic heart of the district.
Barranco is the right place to spend an evening. Cocktail bars (Ayahuasca, Carnaval), restaurants (Isolina, Cosme, Central and Kjölle, which are just over the line), galleries (MAC Lima sits on the clifftop nearby) and live music. By day it is quieter than Miraflores — strollers between the Plaza Municipal and the bridge.