I wanted to meet a place that would surprise me, and Lisbon was it.

Tourist sights, recommendations, good offers and the usual things most guide books and travel magazines list to inspire us travelers are of course relevant and interesting reading.

But sometimes it’s other and softer things that convince us to go somewhere. The Washington Post invites its readers to share their tales of their ramblings around the world… Rose Spaziani just did that – she found what she was looking for in our fantastic city.

I traveled solo in Lisbon for one week in August. Traveling has helped me to rebuild my self-confidence and heal after a divorce. Since then, I’ve traveled solo in Italy, Germany, Austria, California and now Portugal. Before my latest trip, I knew little about my destination beyond what I had learned in grammar school on the Age of Discovery and Portuguese explorers such as Vasco da Gama and Ferdinand Magellan. I wanted to meet a place that would surprise me, and Lisbon was it. Read Rose Spaziani’s evocative story about a week in Lisbon in The Washington Post