Portugal is a revelation in (their) winter: charming, easy-going cities, swoon-worthy countryside and few tourists.
Praca do Comercio, the grand riverside plaza of Lisbon, is the quietest I’ve seen it. On previous trips here, I’d been caught up in its throng, with tourists crowding by its statues and sculptures and through the arcades of the canary-yellow buildings that surround three sides of the square. But that was then, in the northern spring and summer.
We stay three nights in each of these thrillingly hilly cities, walking with charismatic local guides who reveal everything from magnificent miradouros and time warp alleyways to tucked away squares and bijou stores with art nouveau shopfronts. Equally jaw-dropping is the baroque staircase of the Bom Jesus do Monte sanctuary outside the city of Braga. After rattling up to this shrine on a water-powered 19th-century funicular, we have lunch with vinho verde then meander down the incredible staircase on foot. It contains, they say, 573 steps, plus elaborate fountains and allegorical statues.
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