Experience the best of Belo Horizonte

Belo Horizonte was laid out on a grid with diagonal avenues in the 1890s as the new capital of Minas Gerais, and it is now one of Brazil's largest cities. The Serra do Curral ridge forms its backdrop. Praça da Liberdade, a formal square planted with palms, is ringed by museums and cultural centres housed in former government buildings.

The Pampulha lake district holds a group of modernist buildings by Oscar Niemeyer, including the curving São Francisco de Assis church with tile panels by Candido Portinari, listed by UNESCO. Inhotim, a large open-air contemporary art park with gardens, lies in Brumadinho, about an hour's drive away, and the colonial gold-mining towns of Ouro Preto and Mariana are further to the south-east.

Mineiro cooking is built on beans, pork, cheese and cornmeal, with pão de queijo, small cheese rolls, on every café counter, and the Mercado Central sells cheeses, cachaça and spices. The city's boteco bars act as social centres, and the cooler months bring dry, clear skies while heavy rain falls in summer.