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Santa Teresa , a leafy bairro composed of labyrinthine, cobbled streets and steps ( ladeiras), and with stupendous vistas of the city and bay below, makes a refreshing contrast to the city centre. Although it clings to the side of a hill, Santa Teresa is no favela : it's a slightly dishevelled residential area dominated by the early nineteenth-century mansions and walled gardens of a prosperous community that still enjoys something of a Bohemian reputation. The attractions are enhanced by an absence of the kind of development that is turning the rest of Rio into a cracked, concrete nightmare. There is not a great deal of traffic on the roads up here, which are dominated instead by ageing trams ( bondes) hauling their human load up and down the hill. In recent years, the bairro has developed into an important artistic centre, with many artists choosing to live and work here. Twice a year (the last weekend in May and November), about a hundred artists open their studios, offering the public an opportunity to buy or simply to look. For details of the participating artists, consult the organizer's Web site: www.vivasanta.com.br. At other times, the best place to see the work of local artists is at La Vereda, an excellent arts and crafts shop in the centre of Santa Teresa at Largo dos Guimaraes. Trams run from Centro, from the terminal behind the massive Petrobras building, up to Santa Teresa. The trams take you across the mid-eighteenth-century Arcos da Lapa , a monumental Roman-style aqueduct, high over Lapa, and past the Carmelite Convento de Santa Teresa , which marks the spot where a French force was defeated by the city's inhabitants in 1710. As you climb, the panoramic view of Guanabara Bay drifts in and out of view between the trees which line the streets. On your right, you'll pass the Bar do Arnaudo , a traditional meeting place of artists and intellectuals; when the tram reaches the terminus at the top, you can stay on (and pay again) to descend for something to eat here. One of the bairro 's more notorious residents is Ronnie Biggs , a member of the gang behind the Great Train Robbery in 1963. He escaped from prison in the UK and now lives in exile in Rio. Depending on the state of his health, he hosts barbecues on Saturday afternoons at his house right by the Bar do Arnaudo. He charges over $70 a head for the food, his autograph and the opportunity to take photographs of him; if you're interested, ask for him at the bar. Moments from here, at Largo dos Guimaraes, is the Museu do Bonde (daily 9am-4pm), a surprisingly interesting museum featuring an old tram, photo displays and memorabilia documenting the history of trams in Rio from their nineteenth-century introduction. From the museum, it's an enjoyable, well-signposted ten-minute walk downhill to the Museu Chacara do Ceu (daily except Tues 1-5pm) at Rua Murtinho Nobre 93, in a modernist stone building set in its own grounds - one of Rio's better museums. It holds a good eclectic collection including Picasso's Le Danse and a grouping of 21 crayon sketches by Candido Portinari, all scenes from Cervantes' Don Quixote. In the upper hall, two screens depict the life of Krishna and there are twin seventh-century iron-sculptured horses from the Imperial Palace in Beijing; on the second floor there's artwork from Brazilian painters Djanira and Heitor dos Prazeres. A pathway links the museum to the Parque das Ruinas (Mon-Wed 10am-5pm, Thurs 10am-11pm, Sat-Sun 10am-8pm), a pleasant public garden containing the ruins of a mansion that was once home to Laurinda Santos Lobo, a Brazilian heiress around whom artists and intellectuals gathered in the first half of the twentieth century. After her death in 1946, the mansion was allowed to fall into disrepair, but in the 1990s it was partially renovated as a cultural centre, and today houses art exhibitions. There's also a a pleasant cafe and a small stage where jazz concerts are held most Thursday evenings.
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