Caxias do Sul, center of the region of Rio Grande do Sul, is 131km/81mi north of Porto Alegre and 40km/25mi east of Bento Gonçalves. The town was founded by Italian immigrants who from 1871 onwards built up the settlement of Conde d'Eu. It has now developed into a major industrial city (metalworking, textiles, meat canning) and the best equipped tourist center in the Serra Gaúcha.
The Museu Municipal, which is mainly devoted to the Italian settlement, also contains some fine pieces of sculpture, including a painted wooden Virgin and Child (1885) by Pietro Stangherlin.
The Gothic-style church of São Pelegrino has wall paintings (Stations of the Cross) by the Italian painter Aldo Locatelli, a resident in Rio Grande do Sul. The high reliefs on the great bronze doors depict episodes in the settlement of the region by Italian immigrants.
The Museu da Casa de Pedra is a typical two-story house of the early colonial period (end of 19th century). Originally the home of the Luchesi family, it was later used as a smithy, a warehouse and for other purposes. The museum also displays the tools and implements used by the early settlers.
At the entrance to the city, near BR 116, is the Rincão da Lealdade, a center of Gaúcho tradition, where visitors can sample regional culinary specialties, watch musical and dance performances and visit an exhibition showing the implements and equipment of the early Gaúchos and the first settlers in the region.
20km/12.5mi north of Caxias do Sul is Flores da Cunha (pop. 25,000), the largest producer of grapes in Rio Grande do Sul and also famed for its spirits. The town was populated in the 1870s by Italian immigrants from the Veneto.
The neo-Gothic church of Nossa Senhora de Fátima has a carillon of five bells from Savoy.
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Flores da Cunha - Salto Ventoso
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