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Portugal is an astonishingly beautiful country. The rivers, forests and lush valleys of the centre and north are a splendid contrast to its contorted southern coastline of beaches, cliffs and coves, and even the arid plains of the Alentejo region are tempered by vast groves of olive, oranges, cork and vines. Spring comes early everywhere, when dazzling flowers carpet hillsides across the country, and summer departs late, with sea-bathing possible deep into the autumn. It's a country that demands unhurried exploration - indeed, Portuguese talk of their nation as a land of brandos costumes or gentle ways.

For so small a country, Portugal sports a tremendous cultural and social diversity. There are highly sophisticated resorts along the Lisbon and Estremaduran coast, as well as on the southern Algarve, upon which European tourists have been descending for fifty years. Lisbon itself, in its idiosyncratic way, has more than enough diversions to please city devotees - firmly locked into contemporary Europe without quite jettisoning its most endearing, rather old-fashioned, qualities. But in the rural areas - the Alentejo, the mountainous Beiras, or northern Trás-os-Montes - this is often still a conspicuously underdeveloped country. Tourism and European Union membership have changed many regions - most notably in the north, where new road-building scythes through the countryside - but for anyone wanting to get off the beaten track, there are limitless opportunities to experience smaller towns and hamlets that still seem rooted in earlier centuries.



Food from afar

Portugal's former status as an important trading nation has had a far greater influence on world cuisine than is often realized. The tempura method of deep-frying food was introduced to the Japanese by sixteenth-century Portuguese traders and missionaries, while the fiery curry-house mainstay vindaloo derives from a vinho (wine) and alho (garlic) sauce popular in Portuguese Goa. Indeed, the use of chillis in the East only began when the Portuguese started to import them from Mexico. Bacalhau (dried salt cod) - now a staple in diverse European countries and fashionable restaurants alike - started life as a way of preserving fish on board the Portuguese voyages of exploration; another, less exotic, Portuguese export is marmalade (although Portuguese marmelada is actually made from quince).
Despite this historic global culinary influence, however, it is only recently that the Portuguese themselves have embraced foreign tastes. Pizza, pasta and bland Chinese food are the best that most towns can muster, though you will find restaurants specializing in dishes deriving from Portugal's former colonies - keep an eye out for Angolan mufete (beans with palm oil and fish), chicken piri piri (chicken with chilli sauce), which originated in Angola and Mozambique, caril de camarão (shrimp curry) and chamuças (samosas) from Asia and Brazilian meals such as feijoada (pork and bean stew), picanha (sliced rump steak) and rodizio (barbecue meat buffet).

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