Description

Tour Evora, classified by UNESCO as a World Heritage City, for its excellent preservation along the centuries. Little difference exist between walking in Evora today or some centuries ago. The town has been growing for centuries without losing its ancestral characteristics. That's why it earned the praise from UNESCO.

After leaving Lisbon, you will drive to Evora via the countryside roads of Alentejo, for a beautiful sightseeing tour by car. In Evora, you will have enough time to walk in its historical center and "feel" the atmosphere of this town. After reaching the walled city our guide will invite you to visit the enigmatic church of St. Francis and its Chapel of the Bones. The tour will continue up the narrow streets of the old town reaching the Giraldo square where the Inquisition once had its headquarters. You will also have time to explore the millennium old Roman Temple and have a glimpse at the 12th century cathedral. In the already distant 16th century Evora thrived with culture and tradition and its university as much as it still does today. During a short visit to the century old university courtyard you will understand why Evora was once the second most important city of Portugal.

After such an intensive cultural morning it will be time to enjoy the pleasures of one of the most creative cuisines of Portugal in some of the local "Alentejano" restaurants that our guide will help you to choose. After a relaxing lunch the tour will continue to the "eternal bride" town of Arraiolos, where you will meet the typical Alentejo village: the white immaculate houses (that gave the town its nickname) framed with blue or yellow stripes, the castle at the top of the village that keeps guard over the fields of Alentejo, the typical slow pace of its people that know very well the "art of living" and the embroiderers working in the streets making the famous and genuine Arraiolos carpets. These carpets still preserve some of the most obvious elements of the Moorish culture of Portugal. As you stroll slowly in the streets of Arraiolos you will see the women of the town trying to preserve this piece of the Portuguese culture as time slowly passes by.