Lisbon: City overview

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Marinated in Moorish history and spiced by a maritime heritage that once made it the center of a trade empire spanning the Equator, Lisbon has slow cooked through the centuries. Sitting alone atop seven hills at Europe's most westerly extreme, as ancient electric trams rattle over cobblestones through the dusky Iberian light, Lisbon can feel like a city in which the clocks stopped unnoticed one evening 100 years ago. Yet globalization is nothing new to Lisboetas; ever since Vasco da Gama first set sail in search of Oriental riches in 1497 their city has been the point of contact between the old world and the new. Nothing captures the sense of history like fado, the rich folk music tradition that originated in the alleyways and tavernas of old Lisbon, from where the melancholy strains of a lone fadista accompanied by a Portuguese guitar can still be heard as you step through the steep streets after dark. The last time Lisbon embraced change was in the 18th century after much of the city was wiped out by earthquake and tidal wave -- the result was the elegant Baixa district, a celebration of Enlightenment order and rationalism. The 21st century may have arrived with less of a bang but, beneath the surface, Lisbon is constantly, imperceptibly evolving; modernity now a steady drip, rather than a flood.

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