Portugal is famous for its ceramic tiles. I hadn´t reflected much about it. But traveling to Porto and seeing the amazing work put into the decoration on the exteriors of the houses, is just fascinating.  Below is a small smaple of some of the tiles I saw just around the hotel where I was staying. Nowadays, its too expensive (isn´t it typical) to decorate houses like this, so the houses that do have tiles are protected and is considered an important world heritage.
I just had to add this wonderful photo, taken in an alley just outside my hotell:
