One day in SantiagoFrom the hills to memory
Start early with «From Santa Lucía Hill to Neruda's house»: climb the hill, drop down to Lastarria, pass the Fine Arts museum and finish at La Chascona and the Bellavista funicular. Have lunch over a paila marina, the real seafood soup. In the afternoon comes «From Valdivia to the Centenary station», from the University of Chile's main building to the Central Market. At dusk, «Santiago of earthquakes, fire and memory» ends at Londres 38 and Santa Lucía once more. Dinner is a pastel de choclo.
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Morning
From Santa Lucía Hill to Neruda's house
- Santa Lucía HillThe crag where Santiago began, turned into a garden of terraces, fountains and castles with views over the whole city.
- Lastarria district and Plaza Mulato Gil de CastroCobbled streets, restored townhouses, cafés and museums in the most bohemian corner of central Santiago.
- National Museum of Fine ArtsA palace inspired by the Petit Palais in Paris, with a 115-tonne glass dome, built for Chile's Centenary.
- German FountainThe German community's bronze gift for the Centenary: an allegorical ship sailing towards Chile's future.
- La Chascona, Pablo Neruda's houseThe house Neruda secretly built for Matilde Urrutia on the slope of San Cristóbal, shaped like a ship and named after a head of hair.
- San Cristóbal Hill FunicularA 1925 funicular that climbs the slope of San Cristóbal to the great white Virgin watching over Santiago.
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Lunch
Try Paila marina and caldillo de congrio at Mercado Central. Ismael Valdés Vergara 900, Santiago
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Afternoon
From Valdivia to the Centenary station
- Main Building of the University of ChileThe first grand building on the Alameda, raised for the university founded under Andrés Bello and scarred by a tragic day in 1938.
- La Moneda PalaceBuilt to mint coins, it became the home of presidents, and on 11 September 1973 it was bombed from the air.
- Casa ColoradaThe best-preserved colonial mansion in the centre, home of the count who presided over Chile's First Government Junta in 1810.
- Plaza de ArmasThe spot where Pedro de Valdivia laid out Santiago in 1541, framed by the cathedral, the old Royal Audiencia and Chile's kilometre zero.
- Central MarketAn iron hall cast in Scotland that has been feeding Santiago fish, shellfish and home cooking since 1872.
- Mapocho StationThe railway station built for the Centenary, which now welcomes books, concerts and fairs instead of locomotives.
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Early evening
Santiago of earthquakes, fire and memory
- Gardens of the Former National CongressBeneath this garden stood the Church of the Compañía, where in 1863 a fire killed some two thousand people in little more than an hour.
- Church of San Agustín and the Christ of MayA crucifix that survived the 1647 earthquake with its crown of thorns slipped down to its neck, and a legend linking it to the dreaded Quintrala.
- Church of San FranciscoSantiago's oldest building, raised to shelter the Virgin that Pedro de Valdivia carried on his saddle.
- Londres 38, memorial siteOn a street with a Parisian air, a townhouse that the dictatorship's secret police used as a detention and torture centre.
- Santa Lucía HillThe crag where Valdivia founded Santiago holds the tomb of the man who turned it into a garden, and the memory of the dead who were refused a cemetery.
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Dinner
Try Pastel de choclo at Galindo. Dardignac 098, Bellavista, Providencia