Behind the sensible, ordered grid of city blocks is a world just waiting to be explored. Detour from the main trails and ne can discover Melbourne's intimate and enchanting web of lanes, alleys, little streets and arcades. Each has its own story to tell and each is not shy about telling it. Some lanes have been reborn and hum with quirky city life. Others are still waiting to be discovered.

In the mid-to-late 19th century before the industrial boom in the city, the small lanes and thoroughfares were lined with tiny workers' cottages and the streets overflowed with a sense of neighbourhood. Now that vibrancy has returned with people returning to live in the city the city's lanes and alleys are leading the way. Check out Punch Lane or the combined office-retail-residential project between Little Lonsdale and Lonsdale streets

The lanes are a rich lode of year-round alfresco eateries. Car-free, café-lined Degraves Street (in the Flinders Quarter) is a streak of gently undulating umbrellas hiding patrons from the midday summer sun (or mid-winter drizzle). Nearby funky Block Place (in the Collins Street precinct)is an intimate niche so narrow that the awnings from opposing businesses kiss overhead, while The Causeway, just across Little Collins Street, is another deep ravine of outdoor tables and, in nearby Centre Place, key-hole cafés buzz with diners. The lanes either side of the Chinatown strip are a rich source if indoor Asian eateries and have been for well over a century. But the mother of all alfresco lanes is Hardware Lane where traffic gives way to a long line of trees, plant-thick window boxes and a canvas sea of awnikngs lapping gently at the tables' edge.

The most successful product of Melbourne's laneway renaissance is the boom in bars. Single, unassuming doorways, often with just a discreet sign, open into sumptuous and often spacious interiors. Some are designer cool, while others are miscellaneous mixes of carefully chosen, jumble-sale furnishings. These funky watering holes can be found throughout Melbourne's lanes including Meyers Place, Bennetts Lane, Bullens Lane, Sniders Lane and Market Lane.