Portugal 2005

Lisboa

The first time I crossed over it, it was called Ponte Salazar. It was a futuristic construction, even seen from a Fiat 500, in 1971. A few years later I crossed it again and it was called 25 de abril. I was told the name had been changed following the revolution: it really seems that revolutions all begin on the 25th of April! The reason for this latest trip of mine to Portugal is banally simple: I felt like bacalhau dorado, sardinhas asadas and pesce spada no churrasco. My wife and I arrived by plane; I didn't have the worry, passing over it by car, of seeing whether in the meantime they had changed the bridge's name again. Lisbon has changed a lot in these fifteen years that separate me from my last visit. One thing, however, has stayed the same: fresh fish.

In fact, for the Portuguese, fish is fresh when it's caught during the night and eaten during the day: lucky them! Then, a big novelty, a new bridge, the Vasco da Gama. I couldn't resist the temptation to cross over it. When we went to the Alentejo, as guests of our Portuguese friends, I expressly asked to drive over it and then... on the way back, without my asking, they took me over the old one... How much water has flowed under the Tagus! In the Alentejo the cuisine is from the interior, but it satisfies my Genoese side since the prices are truly within everyone's reach. Moreover, since the region is vineyard land, the wine is excellent and at a price very, very far from those of our wine shops. The village of Monsaraz looks like a little jewel: kept marvellously.

The last time I had been there, many years ago, it was a tangle of electric wires and TV antennas on the roofs, peeling plaster, crumbling paving. Congratulations, they've redone it completely, beautiful.