葡萄牙小镇辛特拉：伊甸园般的童话世界.docVIP

葡萄牙小镇辛特拉：伊甸园般的童话世界 　　活在童话中，是不少人童年时的梦想。如果在这个世界上还真有一处地方如同童话般梦幻优美，你又会不会错过呢？ 　　在葡萄牙首都里斯本近郊就有这么一个小镇，一直被世人以童话世界来赞美。英国诗人拜伦称它为“灿烂的伊甸园”，英国作家罗伯特?骚塞则赞美它是“地球上最受庇佑的一处人居环境”。联合国教科文组织将它列为世界遗产，同时还为它特意创立了一个特别的类别：“风景文化类”，因为它的自然景观和它的历史建筑一样重要。 　　这个优雅迷人的小镇名叫辛特拉。 　　No matter how well it begins or ends， every fairy tale has a villain. In my storybook adventure in Sintra， a Portuguese town about 20 miles west of Lisbon， it was the hands of the clock. Roaming the 1）pristine grounds of castles high in the hills， I wished that time would stand still. 　　Fifty-three minutes was all it took to travel back several centuries. The train that pulled out of Rossio station， a major transportation hub in Lisbon， was filled with the 2）distractions of the modern age. It wasn’t until we had passed the 3）penultimate stop， where the only other passenger in my car stepped onto the platform， that the scenery started to feel 4）otherworldly. Staring out the window in 5）reverie， I marveled at the swirls of color whooshing past. 　　By the time I stepped off the train， all traces of Lisbon had disappeared. What greeted me were 6）hallmarks of 7）quaintness： a 8）smattering of restaurants and 9）mom-and-pop shops， pleasantly sleepy streets and a street clock as old-fashioned as they come. But despite the pleasant scene， I couldn’t help but stare into the distance， recognizing the steep slopes and explosion of greenery depicted in local postcards. 　　For centuries， the municipality served as the preferred hideaway for the Portuguese royal family. A heartbeat away from the political and economic center of Lisbon， the lush slopes provided the 10）aristocracy with a quiet， breezy escape from the city air. But it wasn’t until Ferdinand II， king of Portugal， arrived in the mid-1800s that the entire region became worthy of its current Unesco World Heritage status， with sprawling estates that showcase a millennium’s worth of architectural influences. 　　Sintra remains a crown jewel among the Portuguese regions， but two majo