|
While Lisbon certainly isn’t a shopping Shangri La to rival Paris, New York or Milan, it is one of the cheapest capitals in Western Europe when it comes to retail therapy.
The Baixa is the traditional shopping district, dotted with art nouveau storefronts, selling everything from ornate gloves to herbal remedies, hole-in-the-wall cobblers, cheap leather emporiums and delis stacked with pungent cheeses and lined with bottles of vintage port. In Chiado, hip youth brands rub shoulders with exclusive designer labels, antiquarian bookstores and cutting-edge interior design objects. Portugal’s fashion kudos is most apparent in Bairro Alto with a crop of irreverent young designers flying flamboyantly on the coat-tails of Ana Salazar, the doyenne of Portuguese fashion. In funky boutiques, sharply tailored suits and figure-hugging leather hang from meat hooks where hungover bohos drink tea and DJs spin funky house and breakbeat. The Avenida da Liberdade maintains its status as the elite preserve of the silly-moneyed and the further north you climb, the higher the prices.
Generally speaking, traditional opening hours are Monday to Friday 0900-1300, 1500-1900 and Saturday 0900-1300. However, hours vary in Bairro Alto’s hipper boutiques, where they usually open in the early afternoon and often don’t close until midnight.
The best buys, and most predictable souvenirs, are port wine and azulejo tiles, which can vary from exquisite 16th-century antiques which will cost you an arm and a leg to more affordable reproductions. It’s worth visiting the factories listed in the text to compare quality and price. They will also arrange shipping.
Fatima Hotels On Yahoo Travel
|
