Nothing in all of Iberia compares to the road that connects Covilhã to Evora, especially with one hand on the wheel and the other on a cheese that took us forty eight hours just to find.

A hotel man had warned us not to take this road, because of its length. “It’ll take you all day,” he says. “Better to take the coast.” But we are in no hurry.

The benefits of this road are exquisite: it approximates a savannah: dry and monotone golden-brown. Cork oaks and granite stand widely spaced.

This Alentejo region is Portugal's hottest. Weather which tops out at over a hundred and ten degrees in the summer season help to keep this third of Portugal thinly populated.