Madeira's flower city — espada black scabbardfish in butter and banana, levada trail walks above the Atlantic, and poncha in a hole-in-the-wall adega
Funchal is the capital of Madeira — a Portuguese island in the North Atlantic 600 km off the Moroccan coast with the climate of a subtropical greenhouse, where bougainvillea, bird of paradise, and protea grow in the city gardens year-round and the surrounding mountains rise directly from the sea to 1,862m. Madeira is one of Europe's great wine islands (Madeira wine — fortified, aged in casks that are heated, and immortal: a bottle from 1795 is still drinkable) and one of Europe's great hiking destinations (the levada walking trails — 2,500 km of irrigation channels cut into the mountainsides…
Madeira was discovered uninhabited by Portuguese navigators João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz Teixeira in 1419 (some historical sources say 1420) — one of the first Atlantic island discoveries of the Age of Exploration. The island was immediately settled, and its volcanic soil and Atlantic climate proved ideal for sugarcane, which made Madeira Europe's primary sugar supplier in the 15th century (before the Americas). Christopher Columbus lived on Madeira briefly (1478–1479) while buying sugar for a Genoese merchant; he married Filipa Moniz Perestrelo, daughter of the governor of Porto Sant…