Art & Food in the South Coast

Availability: Every Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 9am (to 3pm maximum).

Some places are not just visited, they are felt. The site we will visit in Ribeira Brava is one of those rare spaces where the soul of Madeira still whispers through objects, traditions, and everyday stories. Here, you don’t just see history, you enter it. Every tool, every textile, every voice echoes with the rhythm of lives that shaped the island.

And then, as if history itself set the table, comes lunch. Not just any lunch, but a moment of connection with Sandra Cardoso, known as “A Biqueira”. More than a cook, she is a storyteller through flavour, a guardian of Madeiran roots, someone who brings the island’s past into the present with every dish. Born in Camacha, carrying the cadence of local speech and memory, she cooks with a kind of poetry: food as heritage, taste as memory, laughter as language.

Once a month, Sandra prepares a private lunch right inside the museum: the walls of Madeira’s past become the setting for flavours that feel like home. The other weeks, the story unfolds elsewhere, in a hidden place. A secret table by the sea, far from crowds, where food, salt air, and horizon become a single canvas.

This isn’t about eating, it’s about tasting Madeira with all your senses. Fire, texture, memory, voices, sea. For your guide, Bri, an artist who lives with synaesthesia, these experiences are colour, sound, and emotion, all blending together. With Art Hop, you’re invited to discover the island this way, too: you will paint inspired by the feelings of the day, mixing up your senses where culture, cuisine, and creativity weave into an unforgettable memory.

👉 Time here has no measure. It’s a day to let go of schedules, to move gently, to simply dive into Madeira’s essence.