The Roman Temple of Évora was built in the first century AD. It is still standing in the middle of a working city, with café tables twenty metres from its columns and pigeons on its capitals. No fence, no ticket barrier, no interpretive panel blocking the view. Just the thing itself, in the morning light, before the tour buses arrive.

This Évora private tour begins at your Lisbon hotel at 08:00 and has you in the historic centre by 09:45, at the hour when the city is still its own. The morning moves through the cathedral square, the old medina lanes, and the Chapel of Bones at the Igreja de São Francisco — one of the most extraordinary rooms in Portugal, where the walls and ceiling are lined with the remains of approximately 5,000 monks. The inscription above the entrance sets the tone: “We bones that are here, await yours.” It takes fifteen minutes. It stays considerably longer.

The late morning is yours. Lunch follows at a table selected and reserved by MBV.TRAVEL — not a tourist menu, but a restaurant where the food reflects what people in Évora actually eat.

After lunch, the day turns toward the open plains north of the city. A short drive through cork forest and golden grassland brings you to a working Alentejo estate — one of the finest wine tasting experiences Portugal’s interior has to offer, at a herdade that produces wine on its own land, receives guests personally, and has no interest in the business of mass tourism.

The afternoon begins with a visit to the estate’s cellar and vineyard, followed by a luxury picnic set on the grounds as the light begins to change. The wines poured are the estate’s own — whites and reds chosen for the season, served at the table with traditional Alentejo petiscos: charcuterie, local cheeses, bread, and olives from the property.

As the sun descends over the plains, the picnic is accompanied by a live performance of Cante Alentejano — the traditional polyphonic singing of the Alentejo, recognised by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Sung by local performers in the open air, with the light fading over the cork oaks and Évora’s cathedral silhouetted on the horizon, it is one of those moments that resists easy description - and the defining reason this Évora private tour with live traditional music in the Alentejo stays with a traveller long after the return to Lisbon.