Portugal

Late October 2020, between one lockdown and the next. Francesco Lietti and I left from Orio al Serio with an appeal to the government posted in my stories: please don’t close the borders for a few more days, I’ll be back soon. A week, a rental car and the Portuguese coast to drive from north to south, with Lisbon at the end.

Comporta and the wave

The first stop was Comporta: an endless beach, grey sky, seagulls and nobody around. The ocean there is no joke. The first wave I got away with. The second one caught me full on and gave all my trousers a thorough wash. In my stories there’s a “before”, with the wave rolling in, and an “after”, back in the room. In the evening, up on the cliffs, there was a sea of fog.

Costa Vicentina and the Algarve

Then south along the Costa Vicentina: the surf at Praia do Amado, the beach at Cordoama with paragliders hovering over the water, and sunset at Cabo de São Vicente, Europe’s furthest point towards the Atlantic, with two bottles of Sagres.

In the Algarve the cliffs turn golden: Ponta da Piedade with its rock arches, Algar Seco, the Benagil caves. At Praia do Martinhal I went for a swim on 27 October, at 18 degrees, and bragged about it a lot. With the drone we found a double rock arch that, if you turn your phone 90 degrees, is supposed to look like a heart. More or less.

Inland and Lisbon

We spent one day inland, between an ancient holm oak in the middle of nowhere and a dirt track full of mud, and ended it with oysters and white wine at sunset. Then Lisbon, riding the old trams, and a wander round the Time Out Market before the flight.

Practical notes

• On the beaches around Comporta, don’t trust the waterline: the long wave reaches much further up than it looks.
• At the end of October you can still swim in the Algarve: we found 18 degrees.
• Sunset at Cabo de São Vicente is worth the detour.