PHOTO: Pacao Municipal in Porto Alegre, Brazil. (All photos by Brian Major)

The announcement of the FIFA World Cup 2014 draw placed four matches in the southeastern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre, one of 12 municipalities around the vast country that will host Cup matches in June and July.

Porto Alegre’s Beira Rio Stadium will host matches that pit Australia against Holland, France against Honduras, South Korea against Algeria, and, in what international soccer experts expect to be an especially hard-fought contest, Nigeria against Argentina.

Puerto Alegre hoteliers are adding 35 new properties in preparation for the influx of visitors from within the soccer-obsessed country and nations across the globe, including the United States. FIFA has received 6.2 million requests for World Cup tickets from 203 countries, with 374,065 requests originating from the United States, second only to Brazil itself.

Continuing my tour of this World Cup city, I spent a good part of draw day in a hotel room in the tourist town of Gramado with my extremely knowledgeable guides from Embratur, Tina Leme Scott and Andre Maceira. We watched the draw unfold live on television as Andre, a resident of Sao Paulo whose grandfather was instrumental in the formation of Brazil’s celebrated Corinthians club, graciously shared World Cup facts, history, player information and strategy. 

Porto Alegre’s importance – both to the upcoming World Cup and is magnified – by its geographic position in the “Conesur” – an area adjacent to Argentina and Uruguay, with relatively close proximity to Paraguay and Chile. This positioning creates a clear opportunity for Porto Alegre to draw World Cup visitors from across South America compared with some other World Cup sites.

PHOTO: A view of the bustling downtown life of Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Travelers arriving in Puerto Alegre will find a mostly sophisticated, growing city with a modern central business district that includes historic buildings and structures and leafy parks, plus multiple restaurants and distinctive excursions and cultural activities.

Prior to the draw our media group embarked on Passeio de Barco, a leisurely boat ride along the mangroves along the Guaiba River, which borders Porto Alegre. The ride last a little more than one hour, perfectly timed to provide a brief retreat from busy downtown Porto Alegre into the lush and quiet mangroves.

We drifted past large, impressive vacation homes on the river’s banks and children swimming at the river’s edge.

The boat is docked just outside of Porto Alegre’s historic district, where visitors will find several grand historic buildings including the imposing neoclassical Paco Municipal (the city hall) designed by Luis Carrara and inaugurated in 1901 and Nossa Senhora das Dores Church, whose cornerstone was laid in 1807 and took another 97 years to complete. The building’s Portugese baroque lines and German-style façade show the evolution of Port Alegre’s architectural styles.

One afternoon our group strolled beyond the historic buildings into Porto Alegre’s Mercado Publico Central for a look into everyday Porto Alegre activity.

Housed in a historic structure built in 1869 on land reclaimed from the Guaiba River, the Mercado houses more than 100 shops offering spices, vegetables, meat, fish and beverages including cachaca, a distilled spirit made from sugar cane juice that is Brazil’s most popular distilled alcoholic beverage.

PHOTO: Walking through the Mercado Publico Central in Porto Alegre. 

The Mercado is also the go-to resource for religious items, regional crafts and items typical of Rio Grande Do Sul, the Brazilian state that encompasses Port Alegre and is the official capital of the gaucho culture.

Porto Alegre is likely to prove an attractive World Cup host as the city offers insight into a side of Brazilian culture not found in more-popular Rio. In my next dispatch, I’ll discuss the gaucho culture on display here and highlight tourist towns beyond the city limits.