Hi Brian
We have almost competed the purchase of a holiday property close to Coimbra and so have had to get a Fiscal number and a Portuguese bank account.
To get a Fiscal number , you must have a permanent address in Portugal. ( we did not know this and made a trip to Lisbon, got to the office, queded for 3 hours and were refused.)
You can either go to the office with your paperwork and a Portuguese resident and use their address or
Get your lawyer to do it for you. ( which is what we did)

Once you have the Fiscal you can open a bank account.
We used a branch of BES in London, we went along with what ever paperwork they specified and signed the forms.
The account we chose has a current and a savings account which are linked.
If the balance in the current account drops below a certain value, it is refilled from the savings account automatically.
Hopefully, after setting up direct debits for utilities etc, I will not have to worry about going overdrawn and wont have to obsessively check the accounts, which can be done on Internet.

Basil Bloom