Avenida Paulista and MASP

Avenida Paulista runs about two and a half kilometres along a ridge and is where Sao Paulo does everything public - banks, protests, the new year run, the Pride parade, and on Sundays a full closure to traffic that fills it with cyclists, street musicians and families. The Museu de Arte de Sao Paulo, designed by Lina Bo Bardi and opened in 1968, is lifted on four red concrete columns spanning seventy-four metres, leaving an open plaza underneath that was a condition of the land donation. Inside, Bo Bardi's glass easels present paintings standing free in an open hall with the labels behind, so the works are approached without a wall and without an imposed order - an arrangement removed for decades and restored in 2015.

What you actually see

• A seventy-four-metre red span - the museum lifted clear over an open plaza.
• Glass easels - paintings standing free in the hall, labels on the back.
• Sunday closure - the avenue given over to people rather than cars.
• The civic stage of Sao Paulo - where the city's public life happens.

When to go

All year; Sunday for the car-free avenue. Half a day.

Honest expectations

MASP closes on Mondays and is free on Tuesdays, when it is correspondingly packed. The avenue is noisy and polluted on weekdays. Pickpocketing on the crowded stretches is common. The plaza under the museum is often occupied by markets or events.

Nearby

Trianon park faces the museum; the Pinacoteca is north in Luz.