A Man Who Loves a Place

I found out yesterday that someone had found among the papers of the poet Fernando Pessoa after he died a manuscript, written in English, called Lisbon: What the Tourist Should See. Pessoa's tour begins, as we all do, with water (in this case, the docks at Alcantra, where the cruise ships dock--squint back a hundred years).

I rode Pessoa's imaginary car to the Praca do Comercio.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Up a broad avenue to Praca Marques de Pombal.

 

These and the other features he mentions are mainstream tourist sites, touches of classical glamour, I suppose, at the edges of his territory he seldom left during the last two decades of his life.
Much of his talking/writing life was spent in here:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

His table in there has been preserved, they say. I'll take a closer look soon.