The Portuguese coastline stretching out from Lison has long been nicknamed Costa dos Reis — the Coast of Kings) and for good reason. Fernando II of Portugal built his summer castle retreat, Pena Palace, in the mountains above Sintra, a short drive from the coast, turning the area (now part of the Sintra Cascais National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site) into the European Romantic capital of the 19th century.

Lord Byron deemed it ‘glorious Eden’ when he visited nearby Monserrate — a Moorish palace with sublime parklands where a redesigned rose garden was officially opened in 2011 by the then Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall. Luis of Portugal moved downhill (topographically, not metaphorically) in the 1870s with the siting of his summer residence in the Citadel of Cascais. The fash

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