3 Schlafzimmer Wohnung in Olhao, Portugal, Nr. 1532

Barreta, this bairro where Vitalio has lived all his life, is a village within the old town, scrabbled with cobbled lanes, blind alleys, textured shadows thrown from the infinite blue sky above, once-prim cubist houses now in glamorous dereliction. There's a feeling of North Africa as mopeds push past, and in the elaborate chimney pots with their echoes of minarets. Physically and emotionally, we're as close to Tangiers as we are to Lisbon. The last of the restrictions were lifted here on May 19. Lockdown was scrupulously observed: Portuguese society relies as much on understanding and mutual consideration as it does on its Byzantine laws. Now that we're out (and all sporting our masks inside any business premises and on public transport), once again gifts from the sea and the serra are presented daily to Vitalio by his friends. A brace of wild rabbit from the fields behind town, hedgerow snails crammed inside a water bottle if it rained overnight, a squirm of sand eels, an octopus squashed in a shopping bag. On the island there are half a dozen restaurants to serve you the perfect simple seafood lunch after which you amble along the boardwalk and over the low dunes, drawn on by the sound of the rising falling sea. The sands smell of the silver-sage and yellow-flowered curry plants that pepper them. Sparrows and bee-eaters nitpick and black swallows fed glossy and big on unsuspecting flies swoop and flit on swoosh-shaped wings. The sea! Huge and restless to make you feel small and peaceful. Just by being here you feel like you're playing your bit part in the universal drama, maybe even playing it well. Magnesium flares flash from sun-smashed waves. A rush of iodine in the air. Even during busy August, after a short stroll you're alone, left to nestle and burrow into a dune, seduced when sweaty into the sea's powerfully pristine embrace. Depending on the tide there may be some folk armpit-deep in the swell dragging for butterfly clams, or gently casting long lines for silvery sea bass. Three generations make little family encampments. Families of sandpipers needle the water's edge. An hour's stroll towards the setting sun leads you to the lighthouse at Farol, a lovely beach bar, and the ferry home. Contact Euroresales Ltd for more information.