Well, to be honest here, I don't often travel. So, I'm going to put some tourist spots from the city I currently live in and suggest a few other cities.


São Paulo doesn't feel like a very "tourist" city. No beaches or anything like that. However, historically speaking, this is one of the best locations to visit. Furthermore, it is one of the most beautiful places in Brazil, though being very urban.


Parque do Ibirapuera (Ibirapuera Park) occupies an area of 1,6 million square meters and is home to important public buildings, several museums, a planetarium, and Pavilhão Japonês (Japanese Pavilion), with its typical gardens and lakes. There are also running tracks, courts, bike tracks and a large plant nursery. There you find the Bienal building, Ginásio de Esportes (Sports Gymnasium), Museu do Presépio (Crèche Museum), Museu da Aeronáutica e do Folclore (Aeronautic and Folklore Museum), Obelisco in honor of the heroes of 32 (a revolution that took place in 1932) and the monument to Bandeiras (a group of explorers). One of the city's most important green areas, Parque do Ibirapuera was opened in 1954 to celebrate the city's IV Centenário (the city's 400 years).


Vale do Anhangabaú is between downtown's two main viaducts: Viaduto do Chá and Viaduto Santa Efigênia. The Anhangabaú river, which flows in its underground and it is now piped, used to be of great importance for the city when it was founded. There is also a tunnel for cars crossing this part of the city.

Vale do Anhangabaú, which divides the old and the new part of the city's downtown, has beautiful gardens, many works of art (sculptures) and three fountains that multiply its beauty. It has a good view from which people can admire both sides, the two viaducts and some of the city's most imposing buildings, such as Martenelli and Banespa, aside from the post office's old headquarters and the principal offices of BankBoston, among others.

Also, it's one block away from my house.


This subway station is located in the "basement" of Praça da Sé ("Sé Square"). It is the biggest and most important station of São Paulo's subway system.

t has three floors and it is there that the North-South and East-West lines meet, reason why it is also the most crowded one since it is where people change trains. My husband works there, also.


This seven-floor shopping center is an anthropologically fascinating gathering point for São Paulo’s underground communities, from punks to goths to metal heads. Hundreds of shops hawk everything from CDs and concert T-shirts to black capes and extreme piercing, divided up amongst three concepts: Art, Music and Attitude.


Edifício Copan (Copan Building) is on its own an important tourist attraction and one of the city's most famous postcards. Designed by Oscar Niemeyer, it is the city's largest armed concrete structure. It has 6 blocks with 1160 apartments and a mini-mall at the ground floor. Its S-shaped architecture stands out. It has two entrances, one at Avenida São Luís 130/140 and another one, at Avenida Ipiranga 200.


São Paulo's cultural life entered a new period with the opening, on September 12, 1911, of Teatro Municipal, whose first attraction was the opera "Hamlet", by Ambrósio Thomas. The firm Francisco Ramos de Azevedo was responsible for building its facilities, which were designed by the Italian architects Cláudio Rossi and Domiziano Rossi.

The project took nine years to be completed, and the team responsible for it got in contact with companies from all over the world, making use of an endless number of decorative elements which today are still part of the theater's architecture.

The theater has already been home to several artists: Caruso, Calllas, Ruffo, Shifa, Bidu Saião, Olenewa, Nijinski, Toscanini, Alonso, Pavlowa, Rubisntein, Gigli, Guiomar Novaes, Duncan, Tagliaferro, Fonteyn, in addition to the organizers of Semana de Arte Moderna (Modern Art Week), in 1922. In 1951, Teatro Municipal went through a radical modernization coordinated by the architect Tito Raucht: he built new floors in the areas previously occupied by the dressing rooms - now it has 11 dressing rooms - and the remaining area was transformed into balconies.


Imortalized by the song "Sampa" by Caetano Veloso, it's a huge landmark of the city. Worth visiting.


Paulista Avenue is one of the most important avenues in São Paulo, Brazil. The 2.8 kilometre thoroughfare is notable for headquartering a large number of financial and cultural institutions, as well as being home to an extensive shopping area and to Latin America's most comprehensive fine-art museum, MASP. Since the 1960s, the avenue has been identified as one of the main business centers in the city. Being one of the highest points in São Paulo, it is distinctively clustered with radio and TV stations antennae, such as Gazeta's. The road is served by a subway line and many major bus routes. The avenue, which was inaugurated in December 1891, is generally regarded as the most expensive real estate anywhere in Latin America.

Me and my daughter at Paulista Avenue:

MASP was founded by the journalist Assis Chateaubriand and by Pietro Maria Bardi. Its current headquarters, opened in 1968, were designed by the architect Lina Bo Bardi. Two enormous colonnades support the 9,2 thousand ton building, forming a 74-meter free space. MASP has one of Latin America's most important collections of European art, including works of art by distinguished artists such as Degas, Renoir, Modigliani and Bonnard, among others.

You can find out more about São Paulo here: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]


Rio de Janeiro

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Salvador

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]