Tiago's emails were the best--he made us feel as if a friend were renting their apartment to us. It is hard to capture here in writing, but there was something about his poetic and heartfelt emails. We only wish we could have met him. Overall, the place was gorgeous. We will deifnitely stay again when we come back--and we will. A note about the noise: we were there during Portugal's win for the Euro cup. So people were celebrating. We came prepared with earplugs and turned the fan on at night. Even though we aren't big party people, we enjoyed being in the midst of all the action. In the daytime, the neighborhood was quiet and you could have all the cafes to yourself for lunch. The location was central to everything we did--concerts, the waterfront (where we went running to Belem and I recommend you do too!), Santa Justa Lift, all the shops and restaurants in Chiado, etc. We were close to my favorite miradouro--the Alcantara--and Principe Real neighborhood, which became our second favorite.