You are now on Rua das Padarias, the Street of the Bakeries. The name itself tells the story. For centuries, this was where the ovens of Sintra burned, sending the smell of warm dough into the narrow alleys. And this is Casa Piriquita, opened in the late nineteenth century. It was founded by a husband and wife, Amaro dos Santos and Constância Gomes. To understand how this little bakery became beloved, you need to know about a king with an affectionate streak. King Carlos the First, who reigned at the end of the nineteenth century, loved to summer at the nearby Pena Palace. He would walk down into the town and stop at this bakery. Constância Gomes was a petite woman with a lively manner, and the king gave her a nickname. ""Piriquita."" A little parakeet. The name stuck so firmly that the bakery itself took it. ""Casa Piriquita."" Casa Little Parakeet. The king encouraged her to make her queijadas properly, and for a time, they supplied the royal household. But the real star of this shop isn't the queijada. It's the travesseiro. A travesseiro literally means ""pillow,"" and that's exactly what the pastry looks like. A small rectangular cushion of puff pastry, filled with a rich cream of sweet egg and ground almond. It was created at Casa Piriquita in the early twentieth century by a descendant of the founding family. It has since been granted European Protected Geographical Indication status, meaning the name ""Travesseiro de Sintra"" can only legally be used for pastries made here in Sintra. A travesseiro actually contains almond cream, which reflects the Moorish tradition of almond-based sweets. Puff pastry, a technique that arrived through French influence. An egg-rich filling, which comes from the Portuguese convent-sweet tradition, where nuns used the vast amounts of egg yolks left over after the egg whites were used to starch their habits and clarify wine. So, in short, it is three different cultural traditions, folded into a single pillow of pastry. If you wish, try the travesseiro now, or you can come back for it after completing the tour. Follow the map to reach a square named after the last queen of Portugal.