Property and local area description
The property
The house is situated in a very quiet place between the towns of Amarante and Marco de Canaveses, inserted in a biological farm with 20 ha. Within 300 meters one finds a supermarket, and restaurants can be found in 5 Km. The farm is located near the Ovelha and Tâmega rivers, 25 Km from the Douro River, 10 Km to the town of Amarante and 7 Km to Marco de Canaveses, 54 Km from Porto.
Property is equipped with central heating and offers accommodation for up to 6 persons in 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a large living room with snooker table, open fire place and TV, dining area and a fully equipped kitchen with a full range of appliances (dishwasher included), laundry room with washing machine.
The house offers the possibility to play snooker and exercise gymnasium bike and rowing. Enjoying the landscape, guests may use the outside swimming pool surrounded by an extensive lawn and the BBQ area.
Horse riding can be provided (against fee) along the farm with 2 nice horses from the Quinta (1 Lusitano and 1 British warm-blood).
Amarante
All visitors to Amarante will most certainly be impressed by two imposing natural features: the great Serra do Marão rising above the city in a series of majestic landscapes and the river Tâmega, the longest tributary of the river Douro, whose journey begins in Galicia and which flows through the heart of Amarante, giving added colour to the picturesque houses standing on its banks.
Places to visit
Church and former monastery of São Gonçalo - A majestic group of buildings standing by the river in the heart of the city.
São Gonçalo Bridge - A sturdy granite bridge, built in the late eighteenth century.
Museums
Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso Municipal Museum - Its collections enhance the memory of a visit to Amarante.
Regional sweets and cakes
Amarante's sweets and cakes are extremely famous and easy to find in many of the region's cake-shops and cafés. Remember some of the names and make sure to taste them for yourself: papos de anjo, brisas do Tâmega, toucinho do céu, bolos de São Gonçalo, galhofas.
Festivals
Festa de São Gonçalo (first Saturday in June), in honour of the saint, much sought after by old spinsters in search of a husband.
Around Amarante - some suggestions
No visitor to the region can afford to miss visiting the Serra do Marão in order to admire its breathtaking landscape. Roughly 20 kilometres away along the A4, travellers will find restful accommodation at the Pousada de S. Gonçalo, which has one of the most beautiful views in the whole of Portugal.
Close by is the delightful valley of Ansiães, where you can visit the trout farms on the right bank of the river Ovelha, providing you with an excellent pretext for enjoying a walk through the dense woods that surround them. The village of Travanca da Serra, which is reached by the road leading to Peso da Régua, is an extremely picturesque spot, offering a magnificent panoramic view of the whole region.
On fine days, you can see the mountains of Marão, Gerês and Cabreira. In the village itself, your attention is drawn to the Casa da Levada, belonging to the family of Teixeira de Pascoais and currently used for manor-house tourism.
In the courtyard, notice the two enormous granite espigueiros (granaries used for drying and storing corn).
At Chão de Parada, there is a well-preserved dolmen.
The Douro valley
The Douro is a valley, a river, a vineyard, it is wine. Over the river, the human influence, who transformed the slate mountains into country and walls, an epic common effort of making different cultures meet.
Protected from the damp Atlantic hoists by the mountains of Marão and Montemuro, the production area was defined as wine area for the first time in 1757 - the first viticulture regulation of the world - in the northeast of Portugal, between Barqueiros and Mazouco, near the Spanish border. This is the wine country!
The area extends today over 250.000 hectares, whereby however the vineyard takes only 40,000 hectares, deep embedded in the Douro river basin, and in its tributaries: Corgo, Torto, Pinhão, Tua, Côa, amongst others. The entire area is divided in three sub-regions: in the west, the Baixo Corgo, in the center the Cima Corgo and in the east the Douro Superior - with different microclimatic particularities, however always with cold winters and hot and dry summers.
The combination of these factors, as well as the selective choice of stocks is decisive for the quality and purity of the wines, which are no more than the effect of the harmonious marriage between the earth, the climate and the love and art of humans.
But the Douro is not only vineyard, wine, almonds, olive oil... It is also its people, the wine farmers, who shaped its history and traditions; and the still untouched idyllic Quintas, with their inviting welcome.
But rather than reading about it, you should discover the Port Wine Route with your own eyes.