Teresa Alicia Giamportone

Crossing the Andes, in the footsteps of the traveller Teresa Alicia Giamportone

The province of Mendoza was a very important point in the transit of European travellers from or to Chile during several centuries, especially between the XIX and XX centuries. Three European travellers of different professions and nationalities have been selected for this tour: Italian Pbro. Juan María Mastai Ferretti (Pope Pius IX), Anglo-Saxon Charles Robert Darwin and French Jules Huret. Their works are evocations, memoirs, episodic memories, where the personal or emotional accent is almost always inherent to the story within the framework of adventure and the discovery of new and fascinating elements. Although there is an abundant bibliography on the subject of travel literature and travelers' stories, few are the works that have addressed the places, sites and routes followed by travelers, putting in value the different routes as a contribution to heritage and historical tourism in the province of Mendoza. It is our aim to generate a tourist route called The Andes Crossing, in the footsteps of the traveler that gathers the most important steps and milestones made by foreign travelers on their journey through Mendoza during the XIXth and XXth centuries.