What "the ports" are you thinking about? In this ARM architecture the peripheral registers are accessed within the memory space of the MCU. Each peripheral also has its own clock enable, which must be enabled in the RCC_APBx and RCC_AHB registers.
I'd suggest reviewing the Reference Manual, and using that to understand the library code and how it interacts with the peripherals.
Might suggest starting with the GPIO pins, and perhaps the UARTs
