Madeira’s capital Funchal offers a natural retreat on the city’s doorstep

Every year, there’s a spring flower festival (Picture: Jen Tombs)

Despite its tiny size, Madeira is criss-crossed by thousands of miles of water channels. As these lavadas run through the Portuguese island, so does life — green and bursting. 

Nature is everywhere in the capital, Funchal. The trees are from all corners of the world, after centuries of the trading hub collecting anything passing by, and the banana plants yield local varieties sweeter than any I have ever tried. When my group arrives, May’s flower festival is starting to wind down but the streets are still paved with blooms.

Looming above are the ancient peaks, covered with UNESCO-protected laurel forests. The land is generous. On Madeira, there is no such thing as a bad farmer, as an off-road tour guide says as he points out wild pumpkins, and a lost hiker wouldn’t go hungry. 

Flying fish accompany the boat journey from the airport to central Funchal, where I’m staying at the Barceló Funchal Oldtown hotel, a stone’s throw from the Gothic cathedral. The Barceló’s a charming base, with its crisp local-inspired furnishings and balconies overlooking the indigo sea. And it boasts mouth-watering food at its restaurant, Noz: fresh fish ceviche from the market for just €13, along with tuna, octopus and slow-cooked pork options — even condensed-milk coffee.

Barceló Funchal Oldtown hotel is a stone’s throw from the Gothic cathedral (Picture: Supplied)

The interior boasts great views too (Picture: Supplied)

And out in the city’s warm streets, on to which the restaurant spills, the wonder doesn’t stop. Folk dancers perform and lush parks break up the pavements of black and white stone. Unseen up in the hills, basket toboggans whoosh tourists down steep streets and women sit in front of their windows and embroider linen, by hand, for the local clothing company.

A snapshot of the city from boat (Picture: Jen Tombs)

So green (Picture: Jen Tombs)

‘I don’t just live here; it runs through my veins,’ says Sofia Maul, a professional storyteller who offers food and wine tours. She takes us to the bustling marketplace for a taste tour of the local fruits — most of which I have never seen before. 

Sofia’s grandfather caught toothy deep-sea fish like the ones for sale in the market. Her father invented Briso — the island’s staple soft drink in its favourite flavour, passion fruit — and Sofia teaches languages in the shade of trees she planted as a child.

To be from Funchal, it seems, is to be entwined in the natural world and a shared story.

Not a bad set-up at Terrabona (Picture: Jen Tombs)

On a visit to Bordal, Madeira’s last traditional embroidery factory, I see the painstaking process practiced by the dwindling number who remember how. Patterns are designed and holes punched into the fabric for dye.

These are sent to the homes of 450 women who embroider without a sewing machine, and are paid by the stitch. The care involved doesn’t go unnoticed. Bordal has made pieces for Chanel, and the baby clothes of Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.

The embroidery factory (Picture: Jen Tombs)

At the rooftop bar of the Barceló Funchal Oldtown — as I float in an infinity pool and sip a satisfyingly blue cocktail called Above The Clouds — two women even sit, embroidering under the night sky. They’ve been hired to stitch while the DJ bangs out bass, as a reminder of the area’s traditions, and are studiously ignoring the revellers around them. In fact, the Barceló, brand new as a hotel, used to be an embroidery factory itself. Wall art in its restaurants and bedrooms reflects this history, weaving the establishment, too, into the city’s story. 

Up to the mountains (Picture: Jen Tombs)

This sense of rootedness is there in the mountains as well. Ivan Rodrigues, who offers €55 Jeep tours with company Bravelanders, takes us up an unnervingly narrow, steep road. Once on the unpaved trails, he stops so his passengers can take in the forest, vineyards and banana farms.

‘I don’t work,’ Ivan explains — not since he quit his day job to chase his dream into the peaks. The forest is full of levadas, feeding crops and doubling as hiking routes. And the road is dotted with bars that serve traditional punch. On the terrace of one, Taberna da Serra, I sip €5.50 fishermen’s Poncha, consisting of Madeiran rum — made with sugarcane juice, not molasses — and lime. It is sharp and very satisfying.

And up here, above the coast and the heat, is where Madeira wine is made too. The tranquility is embraced at one vineyard, Terrabona — and married founders Marco Noronha Jardim and Maria João Velosa know exactly what they have.

‘We would never do weddings,’ explains Marco as we sip, looking over the valley. The point of this retreat, offering villas and €30 wine-tasting sessions, isn’t to party but to take in nature. The sea air blowing in is credited for the wine’s fresh taste.

You can explore by cable car (Picture: Jen Tombs)

Back in the city, the peaks are still within reach. A cable car, just a ten-minute walk from the hotel, takes us up to rural suburb Monte, where views of the city and the sea open up and visitors can explore tropical gardens.

From the Barceló’s rooftop terrace, I take in an upside-down view of the island. Intending on looking down over a sprawl of city lights, I find myself instead looking up at a tableau of roads and houses embroidered into the hillside. 

As I absorb the quiet sounds of the sea, the memory of light glinting off flying fish and the clouds that gather then disappear above the forests, the landscape still feels mysterious. In the hills the lavadas keep flowing, as if carrying the island’s memories.

What a backdrop (Picture: Jen Tombs)

It comes withUNESCO-protected laurel forests (Picture: Jen Tombs)

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