START WITH A GARDEN IN PRÍNCIPE REAL WHERE A CYPRESS HAS BEEN FIGHTING FOR ITS LIFE FOR OVER CENTURY AND A HALF. THEN DESCEND TO BAIRRO ALTO, BOROUGH THAT LEADS A SIMPLE VILLAGE LIFE DURING THE DAY AND AN UNRULY DRINKING ITINERARY BY NIGHT. END WITH VERTIGO AT CAIS DO SODRÉ THAT SEEMS TO NEVER SLEEP.
Príncipe Real is so much more than just its garden, cooled by the fountain and vegetation and with a pleasant street cafe. It is a spot on top of a hill, haven for small palaces and steep streets, led by the portentous Botanical Garden and the Natural History and Science Museum. At D. Pedro V street memories of bakeries, bars of good reputation and antique shops resist, all mixed up. And on each curb Bairro Alto calls out for the visitor.
Bairro Alto is a grid cell with a twist. There are streets where some live, others pass by, some buy and sell, others live happily in secret or hang on counting pennies. By night, it is the spot that more easily fly off the handle, which in itself is an invitation for a tour. In fragile harmony, while locals sleep with cotton plugs in their ears, all the bars and the decades old Fado houses, all the taverns and ‘tascas’, all the restaurants and stores open for business and set the tone and color of the ‘barrio’. Bairro Alto used to be a paper empire. But when the newspapers left the borough, only some antique bookshops remain to keep the spirit of those days.
In the last few years, Bairro Alto seems to stretch all the way down to the river. The worn-out Cais do Sodré managed to become a reference in innovation by defending traditional produces such as dried cod and canned fish, blessing cocktail lovers with the British Bar, opening streets to drinkers, creating new spaces for foodies and turning the Ribeira market into a temple for those who enjoy this pleasures. Only a step away there is the train that reaches the sea.
