Pisco's Plaza de Armas was almost completely destroyed by the 2007 earthquake and has since been rebuilt. The reconstruction is clean and functional rather than atmospheric — the old colonial grandeur is gone — but the square is still the social heart of the city, busy in the evenings with families, vendors, and young people sitting on the benches beneath the shade trees.
The rebuilt cathedral on the eastern side is worth a glance, and the surrounding streets have the ordinary, working-town energy of a place that has faced hard times and got on with things. The pedestrian street off the plaza concentrates most of the town's cafes and cheap restaurants. Pisco's namesake spirit is available everywhere; ask for a pisco sour rather than straight pisco unless you enjoy high-octane firewater at nine in the morning.