Colin Barraclough for the Boston Globe

Alejandro Casas-Cordero sold his hand-made 1:40 scale models of Valparaíso’s distinctive winding streets and brightly colored, clapboard-and-corrugated iron houses.

Colin Barraclough for the Boston Globe

Despite its recent facelift, Valparaíso is no anodyne tourist village. Graffiti-covered walls remain a noted part of the city.

Colin Barraclough for the Boston Globe

Pablo Neruda's whimsical house in breezy Cerro Bellavista, the only one of the three places the poet lived where visitors are free to wander at will.

Colin Barraclough for the Boston Globe

Increasingly, Valparaíso’s once-derelict mansions are being converted into hotels. The Gran Hotel Gervasoni on Cerro Concepción was built by Pascual Baburizza, a Croatia-born minerals magnate who struck it rich in Chile.

Colin Barraclough for the Boston Globe

With its 19th-century prosperity, Valparaíso expanded upward from a narrow coastal plain.

Colin Barraclough for the Boston Globe

The city scaled a series of cerro hillsides that formed a natural amphitheater above the Pacific shoreline.

Colin Barraclough for the Boston Globe

Loft-style apartments in formerly down-at-heel Cerro Yungay, evidence of the city's renaissance.