Vila Madalena climbs the hills west of Pinheiros, originally settled as a quiet middle-class neighbourhood in the 1950s and 60s, then taken over by artists, musicians, and university students in the 1980s when the rents in central São Paulo got too high. The bohemian wave is now over — rents have followed — but the neighbourhood is still the city's most concentrated quarter for galleries, second-hand bookshops, and bar life. The Beco do Batman graffiti alley and the Aspicuelta-Fradique Coutinho-Wisard nightlife triangle are the two anchors.
The Saturday afternoon scene at the Praça do Pôr do Sol (Sunset Square), a small park overlooking Pinheiros, is a fixture: musicians playing chorinho, families with dogs, beer vendors. The view of the sunset over the Pinheiros valley is what the square is named for and is generally worth the wait. The neighbourhood is well served by the Yellow Line metro station Vila Madalena.