Cardiffian Peter Finch discovers the real Cardiff: lost rivers, Roman forts, holy wells, Arthurian knights, itinerant poets, the old race course, the revitalised city centre, the redeveloped Cardiff Bay - "Europe"s most exciting waterfront" - as he travels the city from east to west and north to south. All Cardiff is here ETH not just the tourist destinations. The estates of Ely and Grangetown sit next to elegant Radyr and Whitchurch; the new bars jostle with the old pubs; taxi drivers travel the same pages as the great and the good; the terraces of Splott stand by the grandeur of the castle and the civic centre. What do visitors make of the place? Meet the Japanese tourist puzzling over Castell Coch; get banned from the pubs of Llandaff with novelist George MacBeth; listen to Allen Ginsberg and the Beat poets in town. Meet the locals too, with their mix of diffidence and pride in the city. And see how Cardiff is changing, from Finch"s youth in the sixties to the chrome and glass today; from capital city to seat of government; from thriving docks and steelmaking to financial services and the new tourism.This is offbeat topographical writing, peppered with Finch"s poems, which will enthrall the native, the visitor and the armchair traveller. It"s celebratory, it"s subversive. It"s Real Cardiff.