Why Viana rewards a slow stay

Arriving in Viana by train, you step out into a square drawn with a ruler: granite, palms, a kiosk, and the Lima behind. Twenty minutes on foot to the historic centre - any way you go, you face a church, a fountain square, or a narrow street that smells of grilled fish. Viana was a city of discoveries, then embroiderers, then fishermen, and today all at once. Walk up to Santa Luzia at dusk; one evening eat at Cais Novo with the river almost touching the table.