Stephen Avery Chmelewski

Essayist:  Travel, Portugal, Culture, Politics, History, Education

Go World Travel Magazine •

Assisi in Spring: Calendimaggio, Saint Francis and Umbrian Cuisine

The small train station looked like something out of a Giuseppe Tornatore movie, with a tastefully subdued one-room bar/restaurant where a sojourner could immediately sit down and let the stress of getting somewhere slip away.


As soon as I arrived in Assisi, I could feel the alluring appeal of the place, as if the air itself had a relaxed texture to it, like a nice sofa one could comfortably sink into.


After sitting with a beer absorbing the place, I walked out into the quiet street, found...
The Portugal News •

A Tale of Two Countries Passing in Broad Daylight

By Stephen A. Chmelewski, in Portugal, North America · 01 May 2024, 12:01 · 8 Comments

When my neighbor Licinio, a dedicated communist, invited me to come with him down to Lisbon for the 50th anniversary since the fall of Antonio Salazar’s “Estado Novo” dictatorship, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to spend the day with my good friend and all the Portuguese to celebrate the success of what has become a robust and healthy model for a successfully ongoing democracy. I needed something to celeb
The Portugal News •

An Awkward Relationship

With the recent seismic events occurring in that land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, otherwise known as Israel, or Palestine, or both, depending on who you talk to, Portugal once again demurely found itself in the limelight. Not so much Portugal itself, but Portugal’s own António Guterres when in his role as Secretary-General of the United Nations stated that the horrific October 7th Hamas attack on Israeli civilians “didn’t happen in a vacuum”, which spurred vociferous crit
The Portugal News •

The Potato Harvest

It’s a little after seven in the morning, and the cool air from the night still lingers to make our work easier before the stifling mid-day heat arrives. Jaime lowers the spade-shaped blade that hangs off the back of his tractor into the dirt, and as he puts it into gear, the wheels grab hold to move forward and the blade cuts a swath into the earth not unlike the bow of a ship that ploughs through water, but leaving a wake of dark soil that brings to the surface a treasure of starchy tubers: po
The Portugal News •

October’s Olive Harvest: A Labor of Love

We had dragged the tarps from the last tree to this one, studiously laid them out at its base in a surrounding catch-all pattern that took the slope of that part of the field into consideration, making sure the edges of the tarps appropriately rested one upon the other to accommodate the roll of falling olives. With everything in place, Lucinio was up in the tree, cutting the limbs he selected to be removed and those just to prune. The rest of us pulled down at the branches we could reach from t
The Portugal News •

There goes the neighbourhood?

Whatever you think about them, Americans are now moving to Portugal in droves.

Just before I bought my house in Portugal almost ten years ago, I was sitting next to an old Portuguese man on a flight out of Lisbon. When he asked what I was doing in Portugal, I told him: looking for a house, some property to buy. He suddenly looked at me hard, took a good grip on my forearm with one hand, and pointed at me with the other. “Now’s the time to buy in Portugal! Now! Do it! Buy now!” That was early 20
The Portugal News •

Tobacco: The politics of free trade and public health in the EU

“Snus”, “Chew”, “Snuff”, “Dip”, whatever form you choose to refer to it, smokeless tobacco has been banned from the EU market in favour of its more popular, more profitable, and far more dangerous, brand of addictive product: cigarettes.

Behind the reasonable arguments against the use of tobacco products regarding public and personal health, there’s been more of a political drama of sorts played out within the EU that has gathered little, if any, attention by the majority of its citizens.

As s
The Portugal News •

It’s time Portugal: Legalise it

This is one instance where Portugal should follow America’s economically progressive lead on marijuana legalization.

In 2000, Portugal introduced Drug Law 30/2000 which saw to the decriminalization of all drugs, from heroin to marijuana, and instituted a policy that changed the possession and use of illegal substances from a criminal one to an administrative one based on an issue related solely to public health care.

The results of this law have been positive on all levels from a law enforceme
Medium •

Colonial-Era Cronyism: Mismanaging the American Label in Morocco

In too many cases, the selection of school directors by the American Cultural Association for its American Language Centers across Morocco is doing little, if not worse, for teachers, students, communities, and its reputation… as well as that of America’s.

The good relationship between Morocco and the United States has been on-going since the very founding of the U.S. in 1776 when Morocco became the first country in the world to formally recognize the U.S. as a sovereign nation. When Morocco ga
The Portugal News •

An Eagles fan in Lisbon

by Stephen Chmelewski Living in a foreign country can make you miss any number of things with regard to the routines you enjoyed in America, but NFL football, and specifically the Eagles franchise family, allows you to neatly prioritize things.

I’d like to say my rural neighbors here in Portugal wouldn’t understand, but with the fatherly-fostered passion they have for the Benfica football “club”, I can only guess they viewed my decision to make the two and a half hour drive to Lisbon in order t