Experience the best of Canela

Canela sits at about 800 metres on the highlands of Rio Grande do Sul in southern Brazil, a few kilometres from its better-known neighbour Gramado. European immigrants, mainly Germans and Italians, settled the region from the nineteenth century, and Canela keeps the look of a mountain town, with timber houses, flower-filled gardens and a Gothic-style cathedral built of dark stone on the main square.

Parque do Caracol protects a waterfall that falls about 130 metres through forest, with a viewpoint and stairs at its foot. Parque da Ferradura has lookouts over a horseshoe-shaped canyon of the Rio Caí. Araucaria pines grow on the hills, and farther north-east the great canyons of Aparados da Serra National Park, including Itaimbezinho, cut into the plateau.

Cafés serve chocolate, fondue and the café colonial, a lavish spread of cakes, breads and cheeses, and pinhão, the seed of the araucaria, is boiled or roasted in autumn and winter. Chimarrão, a bitter mate drink, is passed around in gourds. Winters are cold with frost, and hydrangeas bloom along the roads in summer.