Tavira Guide

It’s Carnival time, and Tavira is going to be celebrating!
If you around Tavira in February, don’t miss the Carnival parade.

Download the Guide/Agenda for February 2009 in PDF

TAVIRA CARNIVAL 2009
22nd and 24th February
Starting at 15h00, in the harbour street and José Pires Padinha street

Tavira is now officially part of the movement Cittaslow after a successful application.

Healthy food, eat with time, and preferrably in a traditional restaurant. Talk and have fun with friends. Exercise and walk, admire and protect the environment. Respect culture and habits, have a calm life based on quality principles in a fast and demanding world. These are the fundaments of Cittaslow.

Cittaslow appeared in Italy in 1999 by Paolo Saturnini and has as base preserving the tradition, calmness and gastronomic qualities of small cities. This movement tries to maintain the characteristics that turn cities in attractive places for anyone seeking a calm place, as well with hospitality and quality food.

Italy, Germany, Poland, Norway, UK and Brazil are countries where Cittaslow have their own network. Other countries like France, Spain, Australia and Japan are in the process of implementation.

In the last post, I had some interesting comments about the typical Tavira (Algarve) music. As I answered, the Algarve, and subsequently Tavira, have strong roots in Folk music; this music style intends to be satyric and in most cases catching the “naughty” meanings of words. Portuguese language is known for its innumerous ways of interpretation, if you say something in Portuguese, it’s very likely that someone will come up wit a “naughty” interpretation of what you just said and this is used in its extreme in the “Folclore” as it intends to make you laugh while you enjoy the music.

Possibly if you have been to the Algarve you heard about “Folclore Algarvio”. Here is a video/slideshow of Tavira with typical folk music in the background. It’s almost like you are there… if you understand what they are saying you’ll have a good laugh :)