Lisbon

Things we love:

Lisbon has on average 260 days of sun per year. They have a miniature version of Rio's Christ the Redeemer. The Portuguese are football crazy. The downtown area of Lisbon is actually floating on the sea. The Portuguese national music fado (pronounced fadu) divides Lisbon's young people. It's recently had a revival and reinvention.

Things we wish we'd known:

Superstitious Portuguese reckon that if you take a seat at a table’s corner you will marry a hunchback... oops! They have a Roman underworld beneath the city with chambers, rooms, bridges and corridors only open to the public for two days a year. For a great portrait of Lisbon life, elegance, vanity, hypocrisy and humour, read Maias by Eca de Queros before you go. Lisboners love to sunbathe. Every different beach has its own colour due to the sand type. Some beaches turn you grey, so watch out!