This humble levada probably doesn’t feature highly on the 4-day rush tour of Madeira, but it’s a great place to start. The best place to start this trail is a bit up for debate – the upper reaches are reportedly in a bit of disrepair. So we pick a spot up near the Palheiro Gardens at the top of Rampa do Palheiro Ferreiro. A rideshare from Livramento saves a walk down to catch a bus and is comparable in price.

We follow alongside the levada on an easy albeit muddy path just behind the upper suburbs of Funchal. After an hour, already having passed one teahouse, we arrive at the Hortensia Gardens Tea House, which we have to ourselves. Alfie and Cheryl have cakes that are OK and the mark-up on the prices is understandable, not excessive.

Dos Tornos doesn’t have the glamour of its sister levadas, but there’s a certain shabby urban chic to the crumbling buildings along the way. Things get pretty when you leave the levada behind and drop into the lush cauldron of Ponte do Curral dos Romeiros. This chasm has a lot of steps down, a cute stone bridge, and a lot of steps up – but it seems less steep doing the trail this way round towards Monte.

The climb out of Ponte do Curral dos Romeiros has you popping out at the Babosas Square cable car station. This is the cable car that links Monte to the botanical gardens. From here a 5-min walk around the terrace takes you to the top of the other cable car to the city centre.

To get back to Livramento, we walk down insanely steep streets with gradients averaging 30% but definitely approaching 40% in sections – it’s like Dunedin but warm.