Experience the best of Gramado

Gramado sits at about 800 metres in the Serra Gaúcha, in Rio Grande do Sul, where German and Italian settlers arrived in the 19th century. The town centre is built in a half-timbered, alpine style, with flower beds of hydrangeas and a covered street of shops and cafés. Lago Negro, a small lake ringed by pines and black acacias, is a park for a slow walk by the water.

Canela, its twin town a few kilometres away, has the Catedral de Pedra, a neo-Gothic stone church, and the Caracol Falls, which drop about 130 metres into a wooded valley. The Gramado Film Festival, held in August, dates from 1973. Further north-east, the deep canyons of Aparados da Serra National Park cut into the edge of the plateau.

Chocolate shops line the main streets, and cafés serve the colonial afternoon spread of cakes, breads, cheeses and cold cuts, alongside fondue and pasta in the Italian style. The Italian-settled wine valleys lie to the west. The air is cool and damp for much of the year, and winter mornings can bring frost.