This week’s travel dream: Lisbon’s humble, ineffable charm

I didn’t expect “true, unfettered romance” when I first encountered Lisbon, said Frank Bruni in The New York Times. I was meeting Portugal’s capital on a 24-hour stopover, exhausted from a sleepless flight and staggering through the streets while awaiting my hotel’s check-in time. Then my eyes caught sight of a hilltop castle, “medieval and partly Moorish,” which inspired an improvised climb past buildings decorated with bright tiles and sidewalks paved with mosaics. This was a revelation: “It was as if Lisbon wore a set of jewels that other cities didn’t bother to.” Within the hour, I vowed to return. And return I did, again and again—“because Lisbon and I, we sparked.”

Lisbon is “faded imperial glory on the cheap,” much less pricey in that regard than London or Paris. What’s more, the city’s recent economic woes seem to have unleashed the creative spirit of the city’s residents. New businesses abound, including stylish hotels and “intensely pleasurable” restaurants where even last-minute calls usually score a table. Of course, being a repeat visitor has perks, such as the chance to befriend locals. One friend directed me to an up-and-coming neighborhood, full of boutiques and galleries, in the Alcântara parish; another coaxed me into his car for “a thrilling roller coaster ride down (and up) some of the city’s narrowest and most precipitous streets.”

Best of all, Lisbon encourages wandering. If you’re in the Baixa neighborhood, for instance, two hills present the option of stepping into “the scruffy past” or “the stylish present.” One slope houses Lisbon’s oldest district, site of fish stores, butcher shops, and apartments painted in pastels. Opposite that rises a “fancier, better scrubbed” hill paved with “gleaming white cobblestone.” I met one of my new friends there in the Chiado neighborhood. He was genuinely surprised when I remarked how lovely Lisbon is. At that moment, I realized that Lisbon’s humility is what endears it to me the most, even more than the tiles, the trams, the churches, the museums, or the great harbor that brought it into being.

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Doubles at the Lisbonaire Apartments (lisbonaire.com) start at $82.