If your host suggests that you take your iced tea out to the portico, you can follow him onto the porch. A portico is a front porch with columns.
If you've ever seen pictures of the United States Capitol building or the Pantheon in Rome, you've seen a portico. While a porch that is held up with grand columns is a portico, a longer covered area or walkway with columns is called a colonnade. The root of portico, is simply the Latin word for "porch," porticus.
