For those who know the magic of Portugal, it will come as no surprise that hidden in its southern most part lies Beja, an undiscovered jewel that once was the setting for the greatest love story ever told. There, a young twenty-six-year-old nun, the daughter of a rich nobleman met, fell in love and was abandoned by a French officer. Her passionate letters to him published in 1669 took Paris by storm and incited a crucial turn in world literature that inspired generations of artists including Braque, Modigliani and Elizabeth Barret Browning. Built on the highest hill in the Alentejo, Beja still holds the same appeal. Read more →
Current Affairs
: The fields of the Alentejo can appear purple at sunset, and the cork forests, and a field of sunflower and grapes are only occasional punctuated by a fortified hill town. Moors, Romans, Carthaginians and other great civilizations have been drawn to its natural beauty. Read more →
History hidden in plain sight? Sacred places and ancient mystery? Sounds like a fun TV program, but in Portugal there a few places where you can explore hidden underground monuments where the clock stopped centries ago. Read more →
About midway between the east coast of the United States and mainland Portugal sits the Azores, a collection of nine islands scattered over several hundred nautical miles. The closest point to Europe from the United States, the Azores were once the one-and-only stopping-off point for ocean voyagers traveling between the two continents. Today, the Azores are an autonomous region of Portugal, even though they are more than 800 miles west of Portugal’s mainland. A direct flight from Boston to the Azores takes about four hourS. Read more →
Four ways to reconnect with Family and Friends Read more →
Portuguese people are often described as melancholic and nostalgic, but when it comes to love, they could not be more intense. Read more →
Every language has its funny and colorful phrases. Portuguese, one of the oldest still spoken languages in Europe, has some real obscure and hard to understand sayings. Read more →
ABC News and other media have recently highlighted sleeping in a giant wine barrelat the Wine House Hotel in Lamego, Portugal, but do you know about other cool and unusual places where you can spend the night? Read more →
Alqueva, Portugal - Portugal's Dark Sky Alqueva Reserve, the world's first "starlight tourism destination," was recognized at the World Travel Awards as Europe's Leading Tourist Attraction. After winning two World Travel Awards earlier this fall, Dark Sky Alqueva has just been named as the World’s Leading Tourism Project for 2020,... Read more →
Windmills came to the Azores during Portuguese settlement during the 15th century. They were used to pump water and to perform various actions in support of local agriculture. Read more →
All aboard! Much has been written about Portugal, but not so much about Portugal’s rail system. And that’s a shame. Rail is a great way to get around Portugal. It is fast and easy, with major rail hubs in Lisbon and Porto. In fact, Lisbon’s Oriente Station is just 10 minutes from the airport. Most stations are near downtown, and bigger cities have connections from downtown terminals to bigger stations on the main line, as in Coimbra, Porto and Lisbon. Read more →