Maybe it’s true that the portuguese are homesick of what they are still struggling to become, but they live History as if it was their home and the visitor can take notice of that: of course there are plenty of palaces and monuments, churches and statues, stories made of stone and marble or adorned with tiles, but from secular hotels and traditional shops to old restaurants, from Lisbon to stunning Sintra, History has a way to tell the tourist all about the memories, the longings and our everyday life.
The hotels are a pretty good example. Lawrence’s, in Sintra, Lord Byron’s idyllic refuge, Hotel Palácio, in Estoril, where Ian Fleming spied, plotted and wrote ‘007 Casino Royale’ in between assignments, or the emblematic Estoril-Sol. And following the Atlantic, the Grand Real Villa Italia by Boca do Inferno (Devil’s Mouth), last place for the exiled king Humberto II or on the deserted sight of Guincho, the Fortaleza do Guincho, a fortress turned into to a great hotel. And in Lisbon, there’s the Heritage Janelas Verdes, where our greatest novelist Eça de Queiroz lived and wrote, or the Avenida Palace that embraced the 20th century with luxury and open windows to seasonable happiness and revolutions.
There are restaurants not to be missed like the luxurious Tavares in a Bairro Alto packed with decades old Fado houses, or peaking at the river the Martinho da Arcada that still has a table ready to attend the wishes of Fernando Pessoa, Portugal’s greatest poet. Or beautiful cafes like A Versalhes and her golden décor or the artistic and daring splendor of the paintings adorning A Brasileira, along with the daily gathering of painters and writers (Chiado). And finally, the shops, magic places like Chapelaria Azevedo Rua and the best hats one will ever buy, the gloves at Luvaria Ulisses, the jewelry stores of Carmo and Ferreira Marques, even the Campos Barbershop is worth a visit, with or without a shave in mind. And to get a break from all this living and habited History, a glass or two of the precious ginja at A Ginginha, making Lisbon happy since 1840 at Largo de S. Domingos.
In all of these places (and the many others on our list below) there are people living, neighbors and friends that stop and chat, drink and snack, tell stories and live in the midst of History, people to whom the past is as timeless as the future. And if you’re playing the part of the visitor or the ‘adopted’ lisboner you will notice the difference.
