The host provided guides to the apartment, and its facilities, (one was on an inside cupboard door) and several about Lisbon which were also very helpful. That there were no windows, apart from the door, which had frosted glass, and the window above it, and so there was no "view", was not a problem for us. Though we had to shut up during the day, and the apartment could get a little musty in the time before we got back, opening the door and window cleared the air completely for us. We could sit with the door open, and yet feel that it was still private because it was round a small corner in a cul-de-sac.

The area is one of the old parts of Lisbon, becoming but not yet so very gentrified. It is an old working-class neighbourhood, and we had all the senses of that: the hubbub and noise, of people shouting, cafés and workers, men and women, a small school or creche very close, the smells, the graffiti on the walls, fado bars and restaurants; tuk-tuks (cars cannot get there) and tourists wandering around, singly, in couples, in groups, but always with cameras/phones at the ready; little old shops still supplying basic stuff to local people which included us for the duration, you might say, as well as some touristy shops with their kind of thing; the early start to the day, the late finish to the day. In other areas they say that the Alfama never sleeps. In fact we did sleep well and comfortably. And it had all the essential equipment that we could have wanted.

One thing that the description does not mention is that there is a garbage dump at the end of the cul-de-sac. The garbage was collected quite frequently, and the street sometimes hosed down as well.