Évora

Dressed in traditional garb, shepherds and farmers with faces wizened by a lifetime in the baking sun stand around the fountain at Praça do Giraldo; a group of college students dressed in jeans and T-shirts chats animatedly at a sidewalk café; a local business executive in coat and tie purposefully hurries by; and clusters of tourists, cameras in hand, capture the historic monuments on film—all this is part of a typical summer's day in Évora. The flourishing capital of the central Alentejo is also a university town with an astonishing variety of inspiring architecture, including pristine Roman ruins. Atop a small hill in the heart of a vast cork-, olive-, and grain-producing region, Évora is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.