Each of Lisbon’s neighbourhoods has its own atmosphere and its own treasures – and the same is emphatically true of the nearby hill – or mountain – of Sintra, with palaces and gardens, and a tendency for mist to hang romantically about its peak. Despite the nation’s money troubles and the city’s pockets of poverty, Lisbon itself remains one of the most romantic capitals of Europe. The Alfama neighbourhood rises high to east of centre, its castle synonymous with the fortunes of early Lisbon and with fine views of the bellying Tagus below. The centre itself – the ‘Baixa’, at river level, was built on a grid plan by the dictator Pombal in the eighteenth century, one of the great successes of early town planning. Above to the west rises the ever more lively – and stylish – Bairro Alto or High District and far beyond, where the Tagus reaches out towards the Atlantic, comes Belém. King Manuel the Fortunate, his coffers swelling with the riches of India, envisaged a new Bethlehem for a new Christianity mission to the East. The result: two of Portugal’s great buildings: the Belém tower, feet washed by the river, and the gorgeous Jerónimos Monastery. Add to these, museums and galleries with fine and applied arts of the highest level, swelling hills and the constant presence of the river, glimpsed when least expected, not to mention the world’s finest grilled sardines.

Read itinerary