I’m sitting in the bright early summer sun—still pleasant, by tropical standards—by the fountain at the Praça do Rossio in the Baixa district of Lisbon, under the gaze of Dom Pedro IV, King of Portugal and first Emperor of Brazil, who’s standing on a 23-ft-high pedestal.
Fatima, Portugal, is the site of the most famous of the Virgin Mary’s apparitions. Many are aware that it involved children and a startling solar miracle. However, few know that it predicted great world tragedies.
In August, the weather in Portugal can get hotter than the Philippine summer. In Fatima, a 90-minute drive north of Lisbon, temperature peaks at 42°C during midday.
