Wednesday 29 January 2014

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.

 



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