The trouble with so many European capitals is that they’re just not, well, weekend-sized. Try to cram all of Paris or Rome into a Friday-to-Sunday slot, and you end up feeling either exhausted or a failure.

Not so Ljubljana, first city of Slovenia. For as well as having more Js in its name than any of its European counterparts, it also outscores them heavily on the ISPY scale (that’s Interesting Sights Per Yard).

Stand in the centre of the main square, Presernov trg, and you can see practically all the best bits. In front of you the famous Tromostovje, or Triple Bridge (cars over the middle span, pedestrians over the walkways either side). Underneath it, the gloopy, rushing Ljubljanica River, like the Seine but more manageable, with Left Bank-like buildings on not just one but both sides.

To the left, the statue of France Preseren, the poet who gave this square its name, and Slovenia its national anthem. To the right, the bust of Julija Primic, the girl for whom he nursed an intense, but famously unrequited, love.

And all within a radius of just 20 yards. Look a bit farther afield, say 50 yards, and you’ve got the elegant riverside colonnades of the outdoor market, the cherubic pink frontage of the Franciscan Church and the faded Art Nouveau exterior of the old Centromerkur department store (Are You Being Served? with Stalin as the set designer).

Finally, perched on top of a hill so close that it’s practically hovering overhead, stands the city’s white, clocktower-topped castle, looking down, fairy godmother-like, on the maze of miniature medieval streets below.

In principle, then, you could mooch around the main square all weekend and say you’d seen Ljubljana. In practice, though, standing still in Presernov trg is not that easy, since you’re likely to get hooted at by one of the occasional cars (usually a taxi) that trundles across the cobbles.

The other big disadvantage of not budging from under poet Preseren’s feet is that you won’t be able to try the city’s fantastically cheap, but wonderfully delicious, food.

First stop for fish fans has to be Ribca, the nononsense restaurant that sits on the lower level of the riverside colonnades, next to the fish market and within sight of the Triple Bridge. The place is hard to find (the steps look as if they lead down to a public lavatory), and the staff are busy women who don’t speak English, but if you just point to the words on the menu that say oslic (hake) and postrv (trout), you won’t go far wrong. Accompaniments range from cold potato salad to rather tastily fried courgette and pepper strips; prices average €6 euros (about £4) a dish, beer €2 euros (£1.35) a half-litre. (Slovenia switched to the euro at the start of this year.)

Meanwhile, for more meat-minded visitors, Gostilna Sokol is the juiciest joint in town. This rambling alpine chalet of an establishment offers not so much petits mignons as half-pigs, with Slovenian blood sausage as a suggested starter. They do a nice mushroom risotto, not to mention a gorgeous side dish of mushrooms with green garlic and parsley dip.

As for wine, the white traminec is rather nice and gentle; what’s more, there are little bars by the river where you can buy it not just by the glass, but by the unmarked plastic bottle (you point, they fill). Not quite classy enough to give as a present, perhaps, but that’s remedied by buying some of the prettily painted beehive panels that are on sale everywhere. These are reproductions (on wood) of the primitive, naive-style scenes of rural life with which Slovenian farmers have traditionally decorated their bees’ homes.

As well as pottering peacefully round the Old Town squares (Mestni, Stari and Gornji), most visitors make a concerted assault on the castle. You can either do this the hard way, up the steep hillsides off Studentovska, or take the gentler route up through the park. And real weeds can hop on the little tourist train.

You should allocate Saturday morning for the open-air stalls in Vodnikov trg, plus the adjoining indoor market (Trznica, salami heaven). Set Sunday morning aside for the Flea Market beside the Cobbler’s Bridge, one of the city’s three must-use crossing points (the others being the Triple Bridge and Zmajski, or Dragon, Bridge, all within 400 yards of each other).

For atmosphere, visit the old steam-train-filled Railway Museum; for shops, take a ten-minute taxi ride out to the gigantic BTC City complex (furry boots a bargain), and for tea, have four-inch-high cream splodges, known as kremna rezinas, costing £2.70 at the tea-and-cakes hot-spot Zvezda.

As capital city trips go, this one could not have been more comprehensive. At going-home time, we had not just a warm glow from all that fairytale atmosphere, but a feeling of achievement. We hadn’t just seen Ljubljana, we’d done it.

Need to know

Just Slovenia (01373 814230, www.justslovenia.co.uk) has three nights’ B&B at the Grand Union Executive hotel from £349pp, including easyJet flights and transfers.

Adria Airways (020-7437 0143, www.adria.si) has return flights from Gatwick to Ljubljana from £86; easyJet (0905 8210905 – 65p/min, www.easyjet.co.uk) flies from Stansted from £75.

Stay: Celica (www.sou hostel.com), a former prison, has “cells” from about £14pp.

Further information: Slovenia Tourist Office (0870 2255305, www.slovenia.info); Ljubljana Tourist Board (www.ljubljana-tourism.si).

Reading: Ljubljana (Bradt, £7.99).

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