You can get to the palace by train or car. We chose car, as the palace is a short drive out of Lisbon. When you approach it, you see a pink-colored palace and a pousada of the same color across the road from it. The 18th-century palace, built mainly by French architect Robillon, has gorgeous, French-style, well-maintained gardens, with boxwood bushes shaped in squares and pyramids and statues of goddesses. You can see it from the windows in the palace as you are visiting; then you can walk through the gardens and see a pink façade, which continues in yellow as a separate building. Some rooms have brick floors, and some have hardwood floors. The whole palace is decorated in the Rococo style. Some of the rooms in the palace are the most interesting. For example, the gorgeous Throne Room has gilded flower décor and frescoes on the ceiling and walls, mirrored doors, and huge crystal chandeliers. The ceiling has an interesting shape, as if two smaller chapels are connected by a large one. There is also the Music Chamber, with beautiful Rococo gilding on the ceiling, several musical instruments, and a portrait of Queen Maria I. The palace also has a gorgeous chapel, with tromp l’oeil’ed walls made to look like red and green marble, gilded Rococo woodwork, and several paintings on the walls. Across from the altar is a large balcony. On the ceiling, there is a large fresco by Oliveira, as well as paintings by Nuno Goncalves of St. Peter, St. Paul, St. Francis and the virgin. There is also the Azulejos Room, which is covered in azulejos, top to bottom, and the Ambassador’s Room, designed by Roubillon in 1757-62, with two thrones on a platform and a ceiling covered in frescoes, showing men of politics and muses. One of the rooms in the palace is Don Quixote Room, with inlaid wood floors and frescoes showing scenes from the book. When you exit the palace, you walk down the staircase guarded by stone lions into the gardens. The gardens are well-maintained and have a magnificent azulejo-lined canal, which at the time had no water flowing through it.