F1 Holiday part 3: São Paulo

In the third part of our F1 Holiday special, F1 Technical takes you to São Paulo in Brazil. We've picked this city as it's a sparkling city and is the home city for drivers as Rubens Barrichello, Felipe Massa and late Ayrton Senna.

Founded in 1554 by Jesuit priests, São Paulo was born destined to be the economic and cultural heart of the country of Brazil. From the arrival of the first immigrants who settled here for the work in the coffee-growing sector, at the end of the 19th century, the city has seen a trajectory of constant growth. The world's fourth largest city and Latin America's biggest, São Paulo is Brazil's main gateway for foreign visitors, arriving by air, totaling 1,623,543 arrivals in 2001. Business tourism has made the countrycity a strategic point within Mercosul, linked directly to the main world capitals.

São Paulo is a major business centre. The city has a multicultural metropolitan area, with heavy Italian, Spaniard, Portuguese, German, Arab and Japanese influences.

São Paulo is known for its varied and sophisticated cuisine, ranging from Chinese to French, from fast food chains to five star restaurants. Other venues such as thousands of bars, pubs, lounges and discos cater to a variety of music tastes.

The city is home to the University of São Paulo and Federal University of São Paulo, as well as many other private colleges such as the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo and Mackenzie Presbyterian University, the latter founded by North American missionaries, two major art museums (MASP and Pinacoteca do Estado), a major symphonic orchestra (OSESP), and a Formula One Grand Prix racing circuit (Interlagos).

There are two major airports in the São Paulo metropolitan area: Guarulhos (also known as Cumbica) (GRU, for domestic and international flights) and Congonhas (CGH, for domestic fligh.

Tourism and recreation

• Edifício Itália is a 168 metre tall 46 story skyscraper in São Paulo, Brazil, built from 1956 to 1965. It hosts the Circolo Italiano foundation and Terraço Italia restaurant in its 44th floor. It also has a rooftop observation deck, open for tourists.
• Banespa Building is one of the better known buildings of the São Paulo capital. Constructed from 1939 as the headquarter of the Bank of the State of São Paulo (Banespa), and inaugurated in 1947, it was during two decades almost the highest of the city, until Edifício Itália took its place. Its initial project was modified to make it similiar of the Empire State Building, in New York.
• Pateo do Collegio is the founding site of the city.
• Festival for electronic arts is held every two years. The festival brings groundbreaking work by cream-of-the-crop artists from all over the world to São Paulo.
• São Paulo Art Biennial is a cultural event hosted every two years. Almost 1 million people visited the 26th Bienal in 2004.
• São Paulo Fasion week. As Brazil has finally entered the world of fashion with the increasing reputation of famous Brazilian top models such as Gisele Bündchen, Ana Beatriz Barros and Ana Hickmann. As a consequence of this, São Paulo Fashion Week is the place to see and to be seen in Brazilian fashion scene, always attracting a number of international fashion editors and models.

Sports in São Paulo

As in the rest of Brazil, football is by far the most important sport in the city, but every year São Paulo hosts the Formula One Brazilian Grand Prix, in Autódromo José Carlos Pace, located in Interlagos, a poor neighboorhood of São Paulo. For the F1 fans it really is a must to visit this circuit.

This sparkling city has of course much more to offer, but again, we let you discover this.