The castle of Evora
FIRST STOP: MAKING CHEESE IN ARRAIOLOS
It is not very common that in a cheese factory they let you put your hands in the coagulated milk to shape it until you create your own cheese. But in the ** Herdade de Amendoeira , in Campo de Santana **, a district of Arraiolos 120 kilometers from Lisbon, they encourage you to participate in the process. First, visiting the beautiful and hairy chestnut cows of French origin and then entering the cheese factory to strain, knead and mold the milk that will become fresh cheese. The feeling is that you are once again a child who plays with the sand on the beach to look for treasures and build little castles. La Herdade is also a hotel rural with a fireplace the size of a swimming pool, exquisite Alentejo cuisine and good prices (between 50 and 75 euros for a double room). Other traditional gourmet products are made on the 700-hectare property and well known in the country, such as the Montemorense liqueurs of anise, almond and mint pennyroyal.
SECOND STOP: A DESIGN COUNTRY HOUSE
There are two main ways to decorate a country hotel: clutter it up and make it look like a storage room or fill it with junk and fit together -modern and rustic, restored and vintage- like a glove. This last case of Imani Country House , a farm from 1909 in Guadalupe surrounded by centennial cedars. Here, design details and antique objects have been tastefully mixed in rooms and a large hall surrounded by two swimming pools illuminated at night. The owner is a famous Portuguese humorist who often lives in the house and who has managed to create one of the most exquisite atmospheres in the Alentejo.
Imani Country House: a design country house
THIRD STOP: CORK POSTCARDS
Evora It was the Royal seat, which in the 16th century was a seal of tourist quality equivalent to the current "World Heritage Site", which also has it. Its walls are Roman, Arab and Christian. It even has a royal-era aqueduct that is better seen nowhere in the city than sipping a Port by the pool spa hotel M’Ar de Ar Aqueduct . But Évora is also the unofficial capital of Alentejo cork, 70 percent of which is obtained in Portugal, a country that in turn is responsible for 60 percent of world production. One realizes all this immediately when walking through the shopping streets of the city and seeing, in all the shops, the most unlikely objects made of cork: hats, ties, bags, stationery, caps and even postcards.
Évora and its cork postcards
FOURTH STOP: TO HAVE A WINE
Alentejo wines could be summed up more or less with two features: strong and reasonably priced. The best place to choose which one you want to take is the Rota dos Vinhos do Alentejo space in Joaquim António de Aguiar square. There, you can arrive at any time and they offer you a commented and free tasting of the references of several wineries in the region -they change every week-, exhibitions and sale at winery prices. You can also get an idea of what the wines are like in the different areas of the Alentejo and why there are two different labels that you will find on the bottles and that indicate that a wine (the one that says “Alentejo”) has more controls quality than another.
FIFTH STOP: VISIT TO THE MARBLES
Vila Vicosa , in addition to being a monumental town of the first order (you should not miss the Pousada Vila Viçosa, today a hotel and five centuries ago, a monastery) has in the surroundings an astonishing concentration of marble quarries at full capacity. The best way to visit these opulent mining spaces is to wait for spring, when the Marmoris hotel opens its doors, themed around marble. The promoters are businessmen from the sector who have filled all the spaces of the accommodation with marble (some coming directly from the hotel's basement, others brought in a large piece and carved right there...) and plan to organize visits to the quarries for their guests. If you like high-end luxury or want to feel like a sheikh for a day, go ahead, this is your hotel.
Vila Viçosa: marbles and monasteries
SIXTH STOP: A VILLAGE THAT IS LIKE A NEST
Located on the heights, as befits a border town built around a castle, Monsaraz It has very long views that include several reservoirs and valleys. But it is not only photogenic from the outside: the cobbled streets and the houses topped with slate make this small town full of pensions and small hotels with patios the place in the Alentejo where you will most want to stay. It has an air of Santillana del Mar or Altea, to one of those museum towns where artists and artisans traditionally settle to ensure a quiet time.
Monsaraz is like a nest
STOP SEVENTH: A CALIFORNIAN WINERY
The difference between the **Herdade do Esporão** and the Californian wineries that appear, for example, in Entre copas is that while the latter are nourished by a pastiche of European styles, Herdade do Esporão is an old and authentic Portuguese winery. Its history goes back to the Bronze Age, through the Roman occupation -during which wines were already produced here-, and continues in the bellicose Middle Ages, which provided a defensive tower. Minimalist rooms have now been added to the restored buildings, culminating in the restaurant, with a window that makes the views of the vineyards as central as the French-made dishes. The wines and oils from the cellar are among the best souvenirs that one can bring back from the Alentejo at the end of a trip. . The 4 castas, for example, is a coupage that brings together the four most common grapes in the region, in case you don't have time to try them separately.
Wine forms an essential part of the Alentejo culture
How to get to the Alentejo
Of all the ways to get to the largest region of Portugal, the Alentejo, one of the most pleasant is to land in Lisbon -TAP has flights from 18 Spanish airports- and rent a car that gives you the freedom to get out of the route included as standard. Cross one of the 17.2 kilometers of the Vasco de Gama bridge, the longest in Europe, and hey, you're there.