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Porto, Portugal

Porto also Oporto in English, is Portugal's second city and capital of the Norte NUTS II region. The city is located in the estuary of the Douro river in northern Portugal. The largest city in the region, Porto is considered the economic and cultural heart of the entire region. The city, which had an estimated population of about 240,000 (2008), lies at the centre of the political Greater Metropolitan Area of Porto, with a population of slightly more than 2.0 millions (est. 2008), and of a broader metropolitan agglomeration (including the city of Braga) with over 3.2 million inhabitants (2008).

Porto is home to a number of dishes from traditional Portuguese cuisine. A typical dish from this city is Tripas à Moda do Porto (Tripes Porto style), which still can be found everywhere in the city today. Bacalhau à Gomes de Sá (Gomes de Sá Bacalhau) is another typical codfish dish born in Porto and popular in Portugal. The Francesinha (literally Frenchy) is the most famous popular native snack food in Porto. It is a kind of sandwich with several meats covered with cheese and a special sauce made with beer and other ingredients. Port wine, an internationally renowned wine, is widely accepted as the city's dessert wine, especially being that the wine is made along the Douro River which runs through the city.

Porto is served by Francisco de Sá Carneiro Airport which is located in Pedras Rubras, Moreira civil parish of the neighbouring Municipality of Maia, some 15 km to the north-west of the city centre. The airport is a state-of-the-art facility, having undergone a massive program of refurbishment due to the Euro 2004 football championships being partly hosted in the city.

Porto has a Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification Csb). As a result, its climate shares many characteristics with the coastal south: warm, dry summers and mild, rainy winters. Unlike the south, however, cool and rainy interludes can interrupt the dry season and the season's average length is usually shorter.