It Takes a Villa

Portugal over the ages has been visited or conquered by the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Iberians, Greeks, Romans, Moors, Spanish, French and English. Since Portugal was neutral during World War II, treasures those civilizations left behind escaped the bombings that destroyed so much elsewhere in Europe, and I want to see them all.

Finally, we decide to stay put that first full day in Vila Nova and see how things feel as time goes on.

We'd arrived the previous night, after dark, to find that addresses don't mean much in a town with a maze of narrow alleyways that turn and change names every 50 yards or so. We stopped a non-English-speaker to ask directions. He went inside to ask his wife. Soon the street is filled with a large extended family debating in Portuguese how to explain. Finally, one young man motions that he will get in his car and lead us there.

Antonio and Idalia Costa Jose, owners of the B&B where we've arranged to stay, are standing at the wooden gate in front of their property, apparently watching for us. They run up to the car saying they've been so worried; they'd been expecting us since late morning.

We are immediately delighted with our accommodations in the two-story house, Casa Do Adro. A living area with fireplace adjoins the rooms for guests on the second floor. Tea and pastries await us in our room, which has double French doors leading to a patio. Even in high season, July and August, rooms go for about $50 a night.

We're even more delighted to see Casa Do Adro by daylight. We choose to eat outdoors at a table shaded from the bright, warm sunlight by umbrellas striped in gold and white. Bowls of the world's sweetest strawberries are set before us, along with freshly squeezed orange juice, crusty bread, eggs, pastries still warm from the oven.

What better way to start a lazy day? We stroll about two blocks to a castle overlooking the Mira River and walk down the stone steps to the sandy river beach below. We're told that it gets crowded here in July and August, but we have the beach to ourselves and begin exploring rocks covered with mussels and snails.

A few hundreds yards down the beach, the waves of the Atlantic Ocean collide with the still waters of the river. Someone has carved a walkway into a giant boulder that juts out into the water, and we walk around it to find an ocean beach.

It is warm enough, even in February, to sunbathe in swimsuits. Eventually we retrace our steps, then window-shop in small stores on our way to the main drag -- a rare two-way street.

We have fresh fish for lunch, just as we did for dinner the night before. Strolling back to the beach, we discover the pastry and gelato shop -- Gelataria E Cafetaria -- that will become our second home away from home.

Lunch and snack time, like dinner, are leisurely affairs in Portugal. Don't assume the service is slow if you fail to get a check long after finishing a meal. No waiter here would dream of hurrying you out the door by presenting a check before you specifically request one.

Luckily, before stopping in the pastry shop, I didn't know that Idalia prides herself on her afternoon tea. We finish one snack to find more tea and pastries awaiting us at the B&B. No matter. We can walk off the calories by poking around a number of crafts stores in town. And seeing how 7:30 p.m. is the earliest any Portuguese would even start thinking about dinner, we have plenty of time to digest while curled on the couch with a good book.