Portugal With Michael Portillo | Preview (Channel 5)

Portugal is fast becoming the go-to location for Brits to explore, and spend their holidays. Not just resorts, villas and golf courses, Portugal’s rich and varied locations are attracting millions of us with its year-round sunshine and generous welcome. Now Michael takes us in search of its heart and soul revealing the secrets of places we know well, and taking us to discover those we don’t.

Michael Portillo’s journey discovering the real Portugal begins in the country’s cosmopolitan and vibrant second city, Porto. Situated on the lofty banks of the Douro RIver, Porto lies 170miles north of the capital Lisbon and attracts 3 million visitors every year, almost as many as the Algarve.

On Michael’s visit he discovers why it was recently voted the World’s Best City Destination, combining sumptuous vistas and hidden neighbourhoods with a proud industrial heritage, that has earned it the nickname the Manchester of Portugal.

His journey begins in the city centre neighbourhood of Bolhǎo, home to a bustling food market, where Michael discovers why Porto’s locals are known as Tripeiros, meaning tripe eaters.

Crossing the Douro River, via the majestic Dom Luis I bridge, he then visits one of the city’s many Port Lodges, where for centuries Port wine has been stored and matured before being shipped around the world.

Here he learns of the ancient craft that maintains and restores the decades-old barrels in which the wine is aged, infusing it with complex flavours from the wood.

Back in the city centre Michael discovers a grand building that’s well worth seeking out. The Palacio de Bolsa is no longer Porto’s Stock Exchange, but behind its austere facade lies a richly decorated trading floor and gilded ballroom where the city’s 19th century industrialists toasted their success.

A mile away, in the Fontainhas district, he learns of the vast workforce that powered Porto’s Industrial Revolution and discovers the hidden backstreets where rows of tiny houses known as Ilhas, meaning islands, were built illegally. Here he meets 85-year-old Clara who raised her family in one of the tiny dwellings and wouldn’t live anywhere else.

His visit ends with a visit to a forgotten city centre street where local trades once thrived. He meets a family of traditional brush makers, and has a go at making one himself, before buying a beautiful handmade brush as a souvenir of his visit to the city.

Portugal With Michael Portillo begins Saturday 1st March on Channel 5.