COIMBRA, Portugal — She was tiny and pretty, perhaps 20 years old and full of chatter. Spotting a strapping young man with a linebacker's build, she grabbed him by the arm and pulled him toward us for an introduction.
"His name is Caramelo," she gushed, making music of the name. "You know, like the candy - Carrrra-MEL-oh. He's sweet, like the candy. He's the way we Portuguese women like our men - big and sweet."
It was 1:30 in the morning.
Under the streetlights it was hard to tell if Caramelo was blushing.
Our friend, one of several university students we had met a couple of hours earlier, and Caramelo soon vanished into a stream of young people heading across the Rio Mondego to a disco. We had been invited to go along but, being 50ish and very tired, we had declined. Arm in arm we walked back to our hotel, smiling as we recalled an evening of student serenades and earnest conversations.
More about that later.
We had come to Coimbra, a cozy town of 80,000 between Lisbon and Porto, in search of the real Portugal. Twice before we had vacationed in Lisbon and on the Algarve, the sunny, touristy southern coast. Both trips had been wonderful, but Portuguese friends had told us that to experience the essence of the country we had to go north from Lisbon.
We chose Coimbra (pronounced KWEEM-bra) because of its central location - a short drive from the mountains and the seashore - and its proximity to two major attractions, the Roman ruins at Conimbriga and the palace and forest of Bussaco. We were aware also that old European university towns have a special charm.
And we had read that Coimbra is Portugal's most romantic city.
We were not disappointed.
Coimbra is still the place of legend and song that Hans Christian Andersen discovered 128 years ago.
"Coimbra," Andersen wrote in 1866, "is a place where one should stay not just a few days, but several weeks, live with the students, fly out to the lovely open country around, give oneself up to solitude and let memory unroll pictures from legend and song from the history of this place."
It certainly has history. The new cathedral (Nova Se) dates from 1598 and the old cathedral (Se Velha) goes back to 1170. It has tradition, with many students still wearing black uniforms with long, flowing capes. And, with its smoky cafes and cobbled plazas, it has atmosphere.
But most of all, Coimbra is sensual.
