Lisbon is the capital of Portugal, and its most crowed city, with an
estimated population of 505526. Lisbon is one of the oldest cities in the
world, and the second-oldest in Europe, and it has been considered several
times as one of the best places in the world to live and work.
Here, the sun shines 290 days a year and the temperature rarely drops below 15℃ (59℉). A city where you feel safe wandering around day or night, where the cuisine is dedicated to creating over a thousand ways to cook the beloved bacalhau (salted cod), and where you’ll find hotels and restaurants to suit every taste, budget and requirement.
So... why should you visit Lisbon?
From grilled sardines to pastéis de Belém (custard tarts), the food in Lisbon is as appealing as the city and the region. Grilled sardines are popular throughout Portugal, but in Lisbon they are particularly traditional during the Popular Saints festivities in June. They are mandatory fare in any typical restaurant or beach terrace, particularly in the summer, accompanied by grilled peppers and seasoned with the excellent Portuguese olive oil. However, the boats that lend colour to the region’s fishing ports - Ericeira, Cascais, Sesimbra and Setúbal – bring many other fish and seafood for scrumptious bouillabaisses, fish soups or simple grilled fish, such as the red mullet from Setúbal and the fried cuttlefish. In Portugal, we really do have the best fish in the world! As for sweets, the temptations around the capital are many and by themselves justify the trip: walnuts in Cascais, at the end of the attractive Estoril Coast; queijadas (cheese tarts) and travesseiros (egg and almond pastries) in Sintra, and fofos (cream-filled sponge cakes) in Belas, the green Cultural Landscape of Sintra, dotted with palaces and classified as World Heritage by UNESCO; when you cross the Tagus to the south, you will find the Azeitão tortas (egg cream-filled rolls). Our sweets are endless, but there is one that no-one can miss when visiting Lisbon: in the monumental area of Belém, where two World Heritage landmarks are located, the mouth-watering pastéis de Belém are a must, a highlight of convent sweet making that is a trademark of Portuguese gastronomy.
While other cities prefer innovation and progress over history and tradition, Lisbon in many ways retains the air of a 19th-century city. That’s what gives the city its identity. From Central Tejo to jeronimos monastery, Belem Tower (showed in the image above), Commerce Square or St. George's Castel. The general outlines of the city remain as they have for hundreds of years. Lisbon is still a city of balconies and vistas. Some of the most striking of the latter can be seen from the miradouros, the terraces maintained by the municipality on seven of its hillsides. Many Lisboetas, as the people of Lisbon are known, profess their city to have seven traditional hills, like Rome. For centuries Lisboetas have discussed the symptoms of an affliction they believe to be endemic in their city: saudade (“melancholy”), portraied in deeply emotional folk songs, named "fado", that can still be heard in specific restaurants, mainly in the historic quarters of Alfama and Bairro Alto. You can know more about this fantastic city on Wikipedia.