Rio de Janeiro

Belisco Botafogo ’26 ◎

A women-owned wine bar; Gabriela Teixeira, a tasteful, opinionated Sommelière, runs the bottles and chef Monique Gabietti the kitchen. Small plates, good bottles, and Botafogo behaving like it knows something.

Aprazível Santa Teresa ’26 ◌

Brazilian cooking on a Santa Teresa hillside with the bay laid out below; marked for the view as much as the kitchen.

Bar do Mineiro Santa Teresa ’26 ◌

A Santa Teresa botequim papered in old photographs; feijoada on Saturdays, cachaça whenever. Marked, not yet judged.

Confeitaria Colombo Centro ’26 ◎

An 1894 café of Belgian mirrors and stained glass; order a coffee and a pastry, and let the room do the rest.

Real Gabinete Português de Leitura Centro ’26 ◌

A neo-Manueline reading room where the books climb three storeys into the light; marked, and waiting for the right quiet hour.

MAM Rio Flamengo ’26 ◌

Reidy’s concrete modernism set in a Burle Marx garden by the bay; marked for the building as much as what hangs in it.

Casa Roberto Marinho Cosme Velho ’26

A collector’s hillside house in Cosme Velho; Brazilian modernism hung where someone actually lived with it.

Sítio Roberto Burle Marx Barra de Guaratiba ’26 ◌

The landscape architect’s own estate out west, thousands of species arranged by the man who taught Brazil to see its plants; marked for a long day out.

Theatro Municipal Centro ’26 ◌

Rio’s Belle Époque opera house, marble and gilt off Cinelândia; marked for a night when something worth the room is on.

Museum of Tomorrow Praça Mauá ’26

Calatrava’s white skeleton reaching out over the revived port; a science museum about where we’re headed, more convincing as a building than a prophecy.

Parque Lage Jardim Botânico ’26 ◎

A palatial courtyard at the foot of Corcovado, forest pressing in at the edges; coffee under the arches while the mountain watches.

Floresta da Tijuca Tijuca ’26

The world’s largest urban forest, replanted by hand in the 1860s; trails, waterfalls, and the city’s lungs a few minutes above the noise.

Copacabana Beach Copacabana ’26 ◎

Four kilometres of wave-pattern pavement and open Atlantic; the city’s living room, busy from the dawn swimmers to the last beer.

Copacabana Palace Copacabana ’26 ◎

The 1923 grande dame on the beachfront; you don’t have to stay the night to feel why the city measures glamour against it.