Day Six . October 21, 2025 . Montevideo in all its Oddity!

Greetings on Tuesday, October 21, 2025 from Montevideo (our last night here in the city)-

We headed out right after breakfast and strolled through the old city yet again, toward the Rambla (referred to by some as the world’s longest sidewalk), which by the way has different names depicting different sections, including some named for different countries and other sections named after important individuals including Franklin Delano Roosevelt. But en route we detoured at the impressive building that is home to the Museum of Pre-Columbian and Indigenous Arts. They had a fantastic exhibit of masks throughout time.

Our real destination was at the Mahatma Gandhi section of the Rambla–about a 90 minute walk. That seemed fine, except it was quite hot today and there’s not much shade along the Rambla so after a while we used the nifty Voyentaxi app and headed (far more quickly) to our destination. The goal was to go to 633 Rambla Mahatma Gandhi–where a bizarre building, created by the architect and self-acclaimed alchemist, Pittamiglio, is located. His “house” (begun construction in 1910 and was supposedly near official completion by 1911 or 12, but in reality it was a lifetime project and he added detail after detail and extensions throughout his life until he died in 1966. The house is squooshed between buildings from the 50s and 60s that sort of dwarf the physical building but not the extreme peculiarity of the building and its designer-inhabitant.

While it seems that there is not that much known about Humberto Pittamiglio (a Uruguayan born to poor Italian parents). As the receptionist said when I asked a few questons in my minimal Spanish–as we were leaving–he was an architect, alchemist, “out”-homsexual, artist, politician (?), visionary, Catholic, impresario, businessman, and more. At the age of 23, he bought the land (not sure how he got the funds) to build a castle.

As the story goes, he was deeply religious, fascinated by the mysteries of alchemy as practiced by a renowned Uruguayan. His name was really Umberto, but he added thee H so that his name would have 8 letters because of some symbolism. The neighbors were afraid of him because at night he would walk around the area wearing a red cape. He died in 1966, single and without children. At that time he owned more than 400 properties that he bequeathed to the state and philanthropic institutions. Supposedly he designed his casket in a way that it could only be opened from the inside (??) and believed he would never die. He was buried in 1966.

We walked in the neighborhood a bit and then decided to go to a plaza where there is a bench with a statue of Einstein talking with a famous Uruguayn philosopher… We walked the whole plaza but no such bench. Then we saw a plaque marking the spot of the conversation.. but no bench. So the “sculpture” must be damaged and being repaired or something.

After a brief stop at the hotel to begin to pack, we headed out to meet Peter at a local neighborhod bar called Bar Ducan. I tried a really nice Uruguayan vermouth called Rooster. And then we walked to a local restaurant to have a typical Uruguayan dinner —meat, meat, and more meat. Jairo was meeting us there, having cut short his rehearsal to join us. We had some more good conversation and wrapped up our visit to Montevideo.

Onward to Colonia de Sacramento.