Bela Vista runs down the southern slope of Avenida Paulista, and at its heart is Bixiga, São Paulo's traditional Italian neighbourhood. Settled from the late 19th century by immigrants from southern Italy, it kept its old-world character longer than anywhere else in the city: red-and-white-checked cantinas, family pizzerias, and the kind of low, tightly packed streets that the rest of São Paulo demolished decades ago. The district's patron festival, the Festa de Nossa Senhora Achiropita, fills the streets with Italian food stalls every August.
The northern edge of Bela Vista is a different world — the avenue itself, with MASP hovering on its red pillars and the great Sunday crowds. In between, Bixiga is the cultural heart: Teatro Oficina, Lina Bo Bardi and Zé Celso's radical open-air theatre, is one of the most important performance spaces in Brazil, and the cantinas along Rua Treze de Maio still serve the long, wine-soaked weekend lunches the neighbourhood is loved for. Some side streets can feel rough after dark, but by day and early evening Bixiga is one of the most characterful corners of the city.