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Portugal’s second largest city, Porto has a strong beauty all its own. Built on granite bluffs above the Rio Douro, its heart is a tangle of World Heritage-listed lanes tumbling steeply down to a medieval waterfront. It’s hard not to become fascinated with Porto’s riverside, dotted with old port-wine boats (barcos Rabelo), narrow streets and shadowy archways. In spite of the most obvious sights of the city being its six bridges (four modern, two nineteenth-century, all spectacular), the fascination of Porto lies more in its day-to-day life. Porto was known in Roman times as Portus Cale (the “sheltered port”). In fact, this is the origin of the Country’s name. Porto’s status as European City of Culture in 2001 was the signal for a massive urban redevelopment, and Porto’s streets and squares have subsequently been turned upside-down in a flurry of construction work, including the provision of a new metro system and tram lines. Many of the city’s historic buildings are being restored, particularly in the riverside Bairro of Ribeira – now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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