Savassi is the centre of social life in Belo Horizonte — a roughly diamond-shaped neighbourhood about two kilometres south of the centro, packed with restaurants, bars, cafes, bookstores, and the kind of small specialty shops that fill out a successful urban district. The crossroads of Pernambuco and Cristóvão Colombo is the symbolic heart, with cafes spilling out onto the pavement most evenings.
Friday and Saturday nights, Savassi fills up with everyone in the city aged twenty to forty, and the bars stay open until very late. During the day it is more genteel, with the affluent older residents who have lived in the apartment buildings here for decades. The cabines tag this neighbourhood as the obvious base for visitors who want a walkable stay.