Quirky Guide

Pick up a sugar-drizzled pastry shaped into a proudly erect penis, and present it to the object of your affection during Amarante’s Festa de São Gonçalo.

The doces fálicos (literally phallic sweets) are as blatant as fertility imagery comes, a fact more surprising given that the northern Portuguese town is in one of the most conservative Catholic areas in Europe.

To really impress, or invite Freudian analysis, you can also gift your beloved a metre-long cake.

This traditional celebration occurs over the first weekend in June, when the medieval town’s plaza is strewn with red flowers. São Gonçalo’s saintly image, which allegedly has the power to find spouses for ageing lovebirds, resides in Amarante’s picturesque monastery.