- Suggested Itineraries
- The Top Attractions
- Museums & Cultural Centers
- Architectural Highlights
- Beaches, Parks & Plazas
- Rio After Dark
- Everything You Need to know About Carnaval
- Shopping in Rio

CENTRO

Bibliotheca Nacional Neoclassical at its most gracious, the National Library is worth poking your head in just to see the grand entrance hall with staircases extending up through a lofty atrium five floors high. Guided tours are offered twice a day, but if you just want to look around and don't mind a small fib, simply show some ID to the front-desk person and claim you're doing research. The reading rooms are lovely, and in the ground-floor reference room there's a not bad selection of magazines.

Av. Rio Branco 219, Centro, CJC 021/2262-8255. www.bn.br . Free admission. Open Mon-Fri 9am-5pm. Guided visits at 1 and 4pm. Metro: Cinelandia.

Centro Cultural do Banco do Brasil It's worth stepping inside this gorgeous neoclassical building just to gaze up at the soaring domed atrium. Once the HQ of Brazil's national bank, the building was converted in 1989 into one of the city's premier cultural spaces. Inside (in lovely, cool air-conditioning) there's a pleasant cafe on the mezzanine that serves a wonderful afternoon tea (Tues-Sun 3-8pm, R$22/US$7.25), a small bookstore on the ground floor with an excellent selection of art and architecture books (many in English), several small galleries on higher floors that feature changing exhibits on art and culture, three theaters (which sometimes hold concerts but normally stage Portuguese­ language theater), and best of all, should you be feeling book-starved, a fairly decent research library. For coin freaks there's also a small permanent exhibit on Brazilian coinage through the centuries. Allow anywhere from 15 minutes to several hours, depending on what you're interested in. Rua Primiero de Marco 66, Centro. (Tel: 02113808-2000. Free admission; theaters or events may charge a separate fee. Tues-Sun 12-7:30pm . Bus: 136 or 415.

Centro Cultural Light Once the head office for the city electric utility and I i, main garage for city streetcars, this grand 1911 building has been converted ~~i,) a fascinating display space. Inside there's a gallery with some great historic i , I mros of old Rio and another smaller gallery with a (rather esoteric) exhibit on Ii, history of the city's electrification. A third room contains four large canvases -I Rio by the famed Brazilian artist di Cavalcanti. Best of all, much of the buildings interior has been gutted to create a sizable atrium which is often used for mncerts. An old tram car serves as the stage. Call for programming details, but the music is often MPB (musica popular brasiliera). Rua Marechal Floriano 168, Centro. Tel: 021/2211-7268. Free admission. Open Mon-Fri 10am-7pm ; Sat-Sun 2-6pm. Metro: Presidente Vargas.

IEspaco Cultural da Marinha With a destroyer, a submarine, and some great ship models, the Navy Cultural Center is guaranteed to delight naval and maritime buffs. The display space is located on the old customs dock on the waterfront. That means it's narrow and thin, the exhibits extending ever backwards to ,Iw end of the pier. On display are countless ship models, including a full-size , plica of the royal barge and countless small-scale models of everything from the Golden Hind to primitive Brazilian sailing rafts. More interesting for nonmodel freaks are the displays at the very back on underwater archaeology, including a wide variety of relics-coins, Delft blue china, jewelry - from the 1648 wreck of the Nossa Senhora do Rosario . Moored outside the museum are the Iliachuelo, a 1970s-era submarine, and the Bauru , a small World War II destroyer. Self-guided tours of these ships (also free) run from noon until 5pm . I h is is also the place from which one departs for tours of Ilha Fiscal.

Av. Alfredo Agache s/n, Centro. Tel: 021/3870-6025. Free admission. Open Tues-Sun 12-5pm. Bus: 119 or w) (Pra4a XV). From Pra4a XV turn right (north) and walk underneath the elevated freeway for about 100m

Real Gabinete Portugues (Royal Portuguese Reading Room)A temple to books. The interior of Real Gabinete Portugues is four stories tall, ,.ipped with a stained-glass cupola and illuminated by an elaborate chandelier. It's worth stepping inside just to see the room. For book lovers there's an added konus. Created in 1837 by the culture-starved (so they said) Portuguese, the i(;ading room contains over 350,000 volumes, many of them from the 17th and 18th centuries. For the price of showing ID (and maybe filling out a form-it , depends on who's working) visitors can request, obtain, and peruse these books, tm as long as the room is open.

'Rus Luis de Camoes 30, Centro. fCJ 02112221-3138. Free admission. Open Mon-Fri 9am -6pm. Metro: Carioca.

BOTAFOGO

Museu Carmen Miranda If Carmen Miranda could see her museum, she'd roll over in her grave (spilling pineapples and bananas everywhere, no doubt). A omcrete bunker in a postage stamp-size park surrounded by four lanes of traffic hardly seems a fitting tribute to the flamboyant '40s film star. Inside the banana hunker, however, the small collection does a fine job illustrating Carmen Miranda's ~iar appeal. A large number of her publicity photos are on display blown up to ncar life-size, along with smaller photos showing the story of her life and career, including her 1939 American breakthrough in the Broadway musical Streets of lirris. Also on display is the outfit she wore to the 1941 Academy Awards cere­ mony, as well as jewelry and accessories, including the trademark tall fruit hats. F he museum also has a large collection of video documentaries, biographies, the movies she starred in, and a compilation of her songs. The receptionist is delighted when visitors ask to have these put on-a number are in English. Avenida Rul Barbosa s/n (in front of number 560), Flamengo. (Tel: 021/2551-2597. R$3 (US$1) for adults and children over 5, free for seniors and children 5 and under. Tues-Fri 11 am-Spm, Sat-Sun 1-5pm. Bus: 172 (from Ipanema or Copacabana) or 433 (from Centro).

Museu Villa-Lobos This small, slightly quirky museum is dedicated to the life of Heitor Villa-Lobos , Brazil 's greatest composer, noted for including Brazil­ ian instruments and sounds in his compositions and for using Brazilian folklore in his work. The collection includes musical instruments used by the composer, and some of his personal effects. The English signage is excellent, but even so expect to spend no more than half an hour. For real fans, the museum library has musical scores, letters, monographs, records, tapes, and movies.

Outside there's a small amphitheater where regular musical events are put on for next to no admission fee (R$5-R$10/US$1.65-US$3.30). Phone or check the website for information; the site also has sound bites of Villa-Lobos's most famous musical pieces.

Rua Sorocaba 200, Botafogo. Tel: 021/2266-3845. www.museuvillalobos.org.br . Free admission. Mon-Fri 10am-5:30pm . Metrb: Botafogo.

FURTHER AFIELD

Maraeani Stadium The largest soccer stadium in the world and the temple of Brazilian soccer, the Maracana got off to an inauspicious start at the 1950 World Cup when close to 200,000 spectators in the brand-new stadium saw Brazil lose the cup final to arch rival Uruguay . (The loss still hurts-if you want to taunt a Brazilian soccer fan, just mention the 1950 cup. Fortunately, this was only a temporary setback-Brazil went on to win five World Cups.) The best way to experience the Maracana stadium is with a couple hundred thousand other fans at a one of the big games (see "The Only Spectator Sport in Rio ," later in this chapter). Guided tours are offered for a behind-the-scenes look. Rua Profesor Eurico Rabelo s/n. CJf 021/2568-9962. R$3 (US$1) adults, free for children under 12. Mon-Fri 9am-5pm . No tours during events or games. Metrd: Maracana. Enter through gate 18.

Museu Casa do Pontal 44 First the bad news. The museum's a long way from downtown Rio : an hour's drive from Copacabana along the coastal road past Barra de Tijuca. The good news is it's a really nice museum in a gorgeous location-a former summer residence with the ocean on one side and the moun­ tains on the other. Inside, the more than 5,000 pieces collected by French designer Jacques van de Beuque present a beautiful and complete overview of Brazilian cul­ ture. The collection's charm lies in the beauty of its naive portrayal of traditional rural Brazilian life. The thousands of small clay sculptures, combined with wood carvings and cloth and metal tableaus, depict religious and music festivals and farm and family routines. Adults only may enter the x-rated sculpture department with a number of hilarious sculptures in very compromising positions. One of its most famous rooms houses a wonderful mechanical diorama that represents an , rda de samba (samba school)-complete with cheering audience-marching in the Carnaval parade.

Estrada do Pontal 3295, Recreio dos Bandeirantes. QC 021/2490-4013. Admission R$8 (US$2.65) adults, St, (U552) students and seniors, free for children 7 and under. Daily 9am-5:30pm . No public transit.