Usability Views Article Details  home | timeline | recent | popular | e-reports | userati | about this site Sao Levitt (06 Feb 2004) I'm sitting on a wooden bench in the plaza. Beneath my feet are small white blocks of limestone, each one about the size of a coffee cup, and all of them arranged in handmade patterns. Masons have spent lifetimes in this little village, smacking cubes of rock with hammers to turn the gritty ground into a smooth white grid. The tiles are occasionally arranged in a design. Around the outside of the plaza, just under the trees, is a long belt of black stones that frames the central plaza and the benches that line it. In the middle of the plaza is a mosaic of a five-masted Portuguese sailing ship. The stones are smooth and shiny and arranged in neat, tightly packed lines that give the entire town a clean, fresh look. It's been like this for hundreds of years and because it is built by hand - not by machine - it is valuable. Article URL: http://tekka.net/04/?Portugal Read 53 more articles from Tekka sorted by date, popularity, or title. Next Article: Thinking About Grand Theft Auto This site is a labour of love built by Chris McEvoy