Nobody had told us that Lisbon was the most beautiful city in the world, nor that Alfama is a genuine village out of another time in the middle of the city. And Sergio’s apartment in Alfama, with its wood-paneled ceilings, neat and perfectly adequate kitchen and bathroom, is in ship-shape condition. It is an entirely independent place, ample for two people as it would be for four or five, almost ready to take off over the red-tiled rooftops and take to the waters of the Tagus river you can see from one of the windows. We appreciated it so much it was extremely difficult to leave: two weeks later, the apartment, Alfama and Lisbon are still with us. So is Sergio, who gave us such a wonderful, warm, generous welcome, fetching us at the station and sitting down to share his advice for the days and nights of wonder that were ahead of us. We fell in love with Lisbon and we fell in love with Sergio whom we then met up with on a couple of more occasions.

Rent this place if you get the opportunity, Looking at the guest book, we saw that we weren't the first people to have the luck of staying there. We certainly won’t be the last.