South America's giant of food, art and nightlife
São Paulo is enormous and unapologetically urban, and its rewards are indoors and after dark. Immigrant waves from Italy, Japan, Lebanon and beyond shaped a food scene that ranges from the mortadella sandwiches of the Mercado Municipal to the izakayas of Liberdade. MASP's glass-easel gallery on Avenida Paulista holds a superb European and Brazilian collection, and Ibirapuera Park gathers Oscar Niemeyer buildings among its lawns. Graffiti fills Beco do Batman in Vila Madalena, which is also a good base for bars.