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Among the most popular destinations for a holiday in South America, a place of honor goes toUruguay.
If most people head to Punta del Este (the location also chosen by Belen Rodriguez for her New Year's Eve), there are other destinations just waiting to be discovered. Among these, there is a city with a curious history. A seaside resort, linked to Italy and which - our country - reminds us of it a bit: it is Piriapolis, seaside town located on the Atlantic coast, about a hundred kilometers from Montevideo.
Why is it special? Because an Italian entrepreneur and journalist founded it – Francesco Piria -, taking as a model Diano Marina. The two cities are now twinned. And they even look a bit alike. Like its Ligurian sister, Piriápolis enjoys a Mediterranean climate. And it was created by the visionary Piria who was sent to study in Diano Marina. His family had origins and relatives in this town on the Ligurian Riviera, in the province of Imperia, and they sent him here so that he could escape away from the war which, at the end of 1840, put Uruguay to the test.
Piria, in his life, designed bridges and hotels, quarries and railways. But, above all, he had the brilliant intuition: to create a tourist resort modeled after Italian seaside cities, which would become a sort of holiday refuge for the inhabitants of Montevideo. And in fact, from the beginning, his success among the locals was very strong: thanks to the railway (also his project), the people of Montevidea used to come to Piriapolis during the day, or during the weekend.
There was even a monumental hotel, theHotel of the Argentines, which – built in the 1920s – was decidedly avant-garde for its time. However, upon Piria's death, the fight over his inheritance damaged Piriápolis, soon replaced by Punta del Este as the favorite holiday destination for Uruguayans. However, today, it retains a charm that is impossible to deny: the seafront nicknamed “Rambla”, the hills as a backdrop which can be reached with a panoramic chairlift and which are very reminiscent of the Ligurian Riviera. And then Piria's house, which is a real castle, and that atmosphere of times gone by.
It is so characteristic, Piriápolis, that in the Seventies it was rediscovered by the jet set. It has long been frequented by artists of the caliber of Ringo Starr, who had a home here.
