"I feel at home in Porto!"

Richard Zimler received the Honour Medal of Porto City Council.

It was with great emotion that the writer thanked the honour, saying he was "pleasantly surprised, moved and grateful".

The Mayor of Porto, Rui Moreira described New Yorker Richard Zimler as "someone from Porto, who was born far away, making Porto greater, enormous, and immense". Zimler "projects Porto onto the world and he brings the world to Porto. And all of this with his sweet passion for Porto".

The writer demonstrates that passion with the healthy parochialism of people from Porto and says: "I feel totally from Porto. I have been living here for the past 27 years. My friends live here, I know all the shopkeepers from my neighbourhood, my daily life is spent here".

To the question, "What makes Porto so special?" Richard Zimler replied that among other reasons, it is one of the few European cities that remains genuine. "I Think people recognise that", concludes the reputed best-seller writer that has travelled the world.