Sylvan paradise awaits a mere 160 feet (50 meters) from the front door of the Lastarria Boutique hotel in Santiago, a luscious green zone called the Parque Forestal.
Stretching nearly half a mile along the south bank of the Río Mapocho, the popular inner-city park is renowned for its magnificent Oriental plane trees (Platanus orientalis), user-friendly lawns and cultural landmarks.
Foremost amongst the latter is the Palacio de Bellas Artes. Built in 1910 to celebrate Chile’s centennial as an independence nation, the sprawling neoclassical palace houses two of the cities leading cultural institutions — Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (National Museum of Fine Art) and the Museo de Arte Contemporan
eo (National Museum of Contemporary
Art).
