On the northern edge of the Douro Region, straddling the Tamega tributary lies the attractive and historically significant town of Amarante – a mecca for poets and painters.

Amarante is picture-postcard stuff: its sixteenth century monastery stands beside the arches of an eighteenth century granite bridge, both framed against distant hills and reflected in the river with its willow-draped banks. Wander through the steep cobbled streets of the old town above to see a wealth of handsome sixteenth to eighteenth century houses.

At the top of streets, do not miss the evocative ruins of the Solar dos Magalhaes, a manor hours sacked by Napoleon’s troops under Marshal Soult in 1809. The bridge at Amarante was where the calamitous French invasion was definitively halted by Portuguese troops after a two week standoff, after which the French burned down most of the old town.