The Plaza de Armas is the natural starting point for any visit to Piura. It is a handsome square, shaded by old trees and lined with colonial-era buildings on three sides, with the cathedral closing the fourth. The centrepiece is a bronze statue of Independence liberator Francisco Bolognesi, and the surrounding benches fill in the evenings with families, couples, and shoeshine boys.
The atmosphere is relaxed and genuinely local — this is not a tourist square but a working civic space where people actually use it. Come in the late afternoon when the light softens and the vendors set up their carts, and stay for the evening when the square really comes alive.