[kronckew]

not a portugese, but an italian anecdote, i visited rome one new years with my wife & son and another couple and their son. had a work colleague who was also italian from the etruscan regions outside rome. he met us in rome one day & we drove up to his family home & vineyards. we stopped for lunch at a random restaurant our friend had never been to. we ordered lunch and of course were rather obvious foreigners. we wound up talking with the owner of the restaurant, who then decided we should try everything on his menu, including the wine & spirits. all gratis. we wound up staying there all afternoon. he then took us home, down to the cellar where he opened a huge cask of 100 year old wine. he apparently opens it once a year to test it. anyhow, he gave us each a bottle with the vineyards label, signed it, corked it with a hand machine & sealed the cork in red sealing wax himself. it was wonderful.

we spent the weekend with my friend's family, drinking their wine (they supplied the table wine for the area's restaurants) & eating home made pasta. sat. nite we went to their hunting lodge & ate wild boar sausages cooked over an open fire in the lodge, drank more wine. his father, a retired bersagliari colonel and i told each other war stories, got roaring drunk and had a great time. he didn't speak english and i don't speak italian, but it didn't matter. the col. shot the wild boar when it raided his vineyards, by the way. he was about 80 years old, 5 ft 6in. tall, skinny as a rail, tough as an old boot and probably could have killed the boar with his bare hands.

next day i have never had such a hang over in my life before or since, but it was a darn good trip all in all.