The attractive low-rise city of Mendoza nestles at the foothills of the Andes in western Argentina, at the heart of the country’s biggest producing wine region, just over 1,000 km from the capital Buenos Aires. Needless to say wine plays an integral role in the city’s cultural make-up. It’s a flourishing industry which each year attracts an ever-increasing number of visitors, who come to tour the vineyards to the south in the Lujan de Cuyo and Maipu. Here, there are super modern as well as old family-run wineries. Every March, the city plays host to the grand Fiesta de la Vendimia (wine harvest festival).

Mendoza is a lovely city to stroll around. It’s full of wide tree-lined boulevards, pretty shady plazas and green parks where Mendocinos go to relax and meet friends. Much of the centre is largely pedestriansed and there are a plethora of stylish restaurants and cafes which spill out on to the pavements. The city’s focal point is Plaza Independencia, which occupies four blocks. Artisans gather here on weekends to sell their handicrafts under shady sycamores and magnolia trees. At the centre of the plaza is the small Museo de Arte Moderno which stages temporary exhibitions. Beyond on each corner are smaller plazas – San Martin, Chile, Espania and Italia. To the west is the Plaza Park Hyatt, where the Plaza Hotel once stood. Juan Peron and Eva Duarte stayed there in the 1940s.

Near Plaza Italia is the Museo del Pasado Cuyano which recounts how the city’s wealthier citizens lived in the 19th century and in the Parque General San Martin, designed by Frenchman Charles Thays, is the fascinating Museo de Ciencias Naturales y Antropologicas. Mendoza was reconstructed after it was destroyed by an earthquake in 1861 and where the original city centre once stood is now referred to as the Area Fundacional. Here there is a plaza and a museum constructed over some of the excavated foundations.