JA Beranis

Comfortably seated on its seven hills (one steeper than the other), proud of its countless ruas and narrow travessas leading to even narrower and steeper becos or calçadas, so inclined that they can only be climbed by stairs, Lisbon is not your average, flat city. No wonder, then, that it needs less than average means of transport to let both locals and tourists reach its many wonders, hidden in the most unexpected and hard-to-get places. The emblematic, yellow-colored, single-car trams or ele(c)tricos, as they are called in the city, perfectly fit the width of Lisbon’s streets and add to their vintage charm. They circulate on five different routes, helping attraction-hungry tourists reach numerous historical monuments dispersed in the westernmost and sunniest European capital and they are national monuments themselves....

If you’re already fed up with Lisbon’s vintage shops and crave for less classic and more contemporary products, head to the trendy Praça do Principe Real. After a few minutes of rest in the shadowy Jardim do Principe Real under the 100-year-old parasol-like cypress tree with a canopy of 23 m,  enter the pink, Neo-Moorish Ribeiro da Cunha Palace with horseshoe windows and white domes. This renovated 19^th-century building houses one of the city’s trendiest and unique shopping spaces – the cozy and stylish Embaixada.

Shopping in Lisbon can turn out a truly amazing experience which will make you go back in time and feel as if you were visiting a museum. As Portugal remained neutral during the World War 2, Lisbon avoided the sad fate of many other European cities and managed to preserve the beautiful architecture of the pre-war era with ornate Art Nouveau and classy Art Deco facades. Since Lisboners seem to value tradition and know that “an oldie can be a goodie” and as rents in the old town and downtown tend to be relatively low, the city is studded with beautiful, family-owned shops and businesses handed down from parent to offspring since as early as the beginning of the 20^th or even the 19^th century. Set your foot in one of those charming premises and you’ll be transported to an enchanted world with antique furniture, vintage shop equipment and a polite shop assistant or owner wearing smart clothes, tie or even a bow-tie, who undoubtedly knows how to treat his customers with due, old-fashioned respect. In those little temples of traditional commerce, you’ll find good quality, often custom-made Portuguese products, be they hats, umbrellas, ties or gloves.

Lisbon is Europe’s sunniest capital. Meteorologists have estimated that the sun shines there for more or less 300 days throughout the year!