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The town’s cobbled streets, colourful window frames and cheerful chimney pots invoke an unhurried air that is quite disarming. Alte’s church retains a fine portal and is situated near a leafy square. The spring running along its flank tumbles under an old mill, providing a favourite picnic spot.

The warm spa water here has brought visitors since at least the age of the Roman Empire. It is just as alluring today, but there are other reasons to visit this hillside hamlet, not least the wood of pine and eucalyptus which provides a lush, cooling canopy in the heat of summer. Woodsmoke and birdsong drift lazily through a valley peppered with whitewashed cottages and smallholdings.

The town’s 14th-century castle keeps one timeworn eye on its townsfolk and the other on the old adversary, Sanlúcar, Alcoutim’s mirror image on the Spanish side of the River Guadiana. The silence here is palpable, interrupted only by the chiming hour and the rattle of stork bills as they chatter to one another from church towers and chimney stacks.

Just off the town’s main square is the Palácio do Visconde de Estói, a 19th-century Rococo palace, with gardens fanned by giant palms and cooled by fountains. A ten-minute walk from here brings you to the site of Milreu, a Roman complex dominated by the apse of a temple that was converted into a Christian basilica in the 5th century.

The walls of Salir’s Moorish castle are lit up at night and emit an eerie glow, but on the other side of the village the view is more benign, stretching across the valley from the parish church and garden. In summer this rural idyll is blanketed by narcissi and alive with the warbling of brightly coloured passerines.

Early in the 17th century the entire population of Paderne moved from the shadows of the nearby castle to the environs of a newly consecrated church. That village is now a sleepy place of faded charm and modest means, but therein lies its beauty. The architecture retains a certain grandeur, while the Moorish castle stands close by, still wondering where all the people went.

Querença is the focus of some attention in January when the village hosts its annualfesta das chouriças. See (sausage festivalFestivals). For the rest of the year Querença is rather quiet – an isolated but attractive settlement surrounded by the Caldeirão mountain range.

The scenic road south from Alcoutim runs part way along the banks of the River Guadiana and passes through a landscape bristling with olive, fig and carob trees before reaching this tiny village. Amid the orange trees, a former schoolhouse now houses a modest museum that provides an interesting glimpse into the history of the Guadiana River.

The storks nesting on top of the belfry of Martin Longo’s parish church have been members of this small community for years, and they are as appealing as their unusual home. But the “A Flor da Agulha” dolls workshop is also worth a visit, for it is here that traditional jute dolls are hand crafted, the figurines depicting ladies spinning, herdsmen and woodmen.

Wrapped in classic hill-walking country and pleasantly lost in time, Barão de São João typifies rural Algarve. It is best appreciated during the antiques fair, which the village hosts on the last Sunday of every month.