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| «Any month is the time to be in Madeira», stresses Global Traveler |
Goblal Traveler, the American magazine, dedicates the cover story of January 2011 issue to Madeira. You can read the article by Barbara Radcliffe Rogers following one of these links:
Global Traveler cover article on Madeira (magazine online)
Global Traveler cover article on Madeira (on a blog)
Some quotes:
«Brilliant red platter-sized poinsettias peered over garden fences at eye level, passion flowers and lilies bloomed, and the camellias were just bursting forth. Bougainvillea cascaded from every balcony, and morning glories climbed the walls. Bird of paradise, honeysuckle, hibiscus and a dozen varieties of lily painted the landscape. I realized then that
any month is the time to be in Madeira.»
«I’d seen only the capital of Funchal on my first trip, so until the ride to Monte I had little idea of what spectacular landscapes lay beyond it. Now I was hungry for more than a glimpse of the steep
and soaring mountains that fill the rest of the island.»
«This
wild and ragged landscape is made even more dramatic by lakes and rushing rivers, rock outcrops and soaring cliffs that
end abruptly at the sea.»
«Most of the island is carpeted in subtropical greenery, 20 percent of it
UNESCO World Heritage laurel forests now long extinct in mainland Europe.»
«To irrigate it, in the early 1500s Madeira farmers began building
waterways that bring water from mountain springs. More than
1,200 miles of these levadas carry water in nearly horizontal lines along the mountainsides, sometimes carved into cliff faces at dizzying heights. Alongside the levadas, their maintenance paths have become
very popular walking trails.»
