cheese

Due to its many complexities, the Portuguese don’t really expect visitors to speak their language very well but are very engaging and fully appreciative when someone tries.

From Atlantic-fresh fish to the wild meats of the mountains, Portuguese food is distinctive and varied with many of the most popular regional dishes having evolved from age-old recipes based on locally-grown ingredients.

It’s extremely rare to catch sight of a large pod of bottlenose dolphins in European waters, but happily a family of three dozen or so are a regular attraction in the Sado Estuary south of Lisbon.

In 1830, when Gaspar Henriques de Paiva left his home in Monsanto, central Portugal, for the village of Azeitão in the Arrábida mountains close to Lisbon, he took with him the winning formula for one of Portugal’s best cheeses.

With a height of 1,993 metres, Estrela (meaning star) is by far the highest and most imposing of all the mountains on the Portuguese mainland.