{"id":2245,"date":"2018-04-08T18:10:18","date_gmt":"2018-04-09T01:10:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/?p=2245"},"modified":"2018-04-08T18:10:18","modified_gmt":"2018-04-09T01:10:18","slug":"madonna-on-the-move-michigans-material-girl-lives-on-vacation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/golf\/courses-and-travel\/2245\/madonna-on-the-move-michigans-material-girl-lives-on-vacation","title":{"rendered":"Madonna On The Move: Michigan\u2019s Material Girl Lives On Vacation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Madonna\u2019s

Madonna\u2019s children joyfully roamed the grounds at Palacio De Setais in Sintra, Portugal<\/p><\/div>\n

The daughter of an automotive engineer, she was born in Bay City, Michigan, and raised in Pontiac and Rochester before dropping out of the University of Michigan to begin a music and movie career which would result her being known worldwide simply as \u201cMadonna.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her career led the pop star through typical turns in New York and Hollywood, and most recently she\u2019d been living in London. But Madonna, 59, and her children recently moved to Portugal, which has made her the talk of the town in Lisbon and nearby medieval Sintra. Most locals believe she has planted her family flag in Portugal in order for her 11-year-old son to participate in the high-profile Benfica soccer program.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone in town is looking for her,\u201d said Abel Bile, a professional driver who was hired to pick her up at Lisbon Airport, where he waited\u2026and waited. \u201cEventually I learned Madonna was whisked out a discreet door in the back for security purposes. I was only there as a trick to mislead the paparazzi.\u201d<\/p>\n

There have been some high-profile moments involving Madonna though, according to Beatriz Vanzeller, a Lisbon tour guide. \u201cI read she threw a party inside a palace that we read about when we studied history in school. I thought, \u2018Can someone really do that?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Madonna has ventured outside the invitation-only rope lines, too, in culturally rich and colorful Lisbon – which is the least-visited capital city in Europe.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems Madonna has been spotted in the restaurants and even singing in the Fado joints. By all accounts she likes people and they respect her space,\u201d said Joana Jeunehomme, an executive with Tivoli Avenida Liberdade, one of the luxury hotels in the city center where she has been spotted along what is known as the \u201cChamps Elysees of Lisbon.\u201d \u201cI suspect she wants to make a difference by creating a \u2018wow factor\u2019 in another country and in an, as yet, authentic, unexploited city.<\/p>\n

The \u2018Material Girl\u2019 has also taken afternoon tea at Tivoli\u2019s Palacio De Setais, a circa 1802 restored stately palace-turned-luxury hotel in nearby scenic Sintra which also hosted the King and Queen of the Netherlands in October. Madonna made more of a stir than royalty, though, when she posted a photo on social media of three of her children joyfully running and playing on the hotel\u2019s broad, manicured lawn in front of the hotel. Madonna\u2019s Instagram post riled some since, plainly visible in the picture, is a sign at the edge of the lawn reading: \u201cNao pisar a relva, por favor\u2026Please do not walk on the grass.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Vasco Serrano, the hotel\u2019s historical expert, describes Madonna as \u201cour new neighbor\u201d and says he hopes she will visit the hotel many more times.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen she was due to come I thought I\u2019d be meeting a \u2018diva\u2019 and I would have to throw my coat to the ground for her to walk on, but instead Madonna was a very regular person,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Regardless, every guest is treated like the monarchs and sheiks which have stayed in the regal boutique hotel and enjoyed its ornate grounds, herb gardens, lemon trees, topiary, swimming pool and spa. Horse-drawn carriage rides give guests the prince and princess treatment by taking them to castle tours in the center of tiny, timeless and scenic Sintra.<\/p>\n

Did Madonna purchase a palace in Sintra or was it, rather, a home in Lisbon? Either way the buzz about the pop princess is good for Portugal.<\/p>\n

Contact<\/em>\u00a0Travel\u00a0Writer Michael Patrick Shiels at\u00a0MShiels@aol.com<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0His radio program may be heard weekday mornings on 92.1 FM.\u00a0\u00a0His latest book is \u201cI Call Him Mr. President \u2013 Stories of Fishing, Golf and Life with my Friend George H.W. Bush\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The daughter of an automotive engineer, she was born in Bay City, Michigan, and raised in Pontiac and Rochester before… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":2246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[1044565,15,597860,291,998842,3743],"class_list":["post-2245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-courses-and-travel","tag-travel","tag-europe","tag-vacation","tag-portugal","tag-celebrities","tag-madonna"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2018\/04\/image1-1.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2245"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2247,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2245\/revisions\/2247"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}