Santa Teresa at Dusk

Ride the bonde — the yellow streetcar clattering up tracks on Rua Almirante Alexandrino since 1877 — and step off into a neighborhood that feels like it seceded from the rest of Rio. Steep cobblestoned streets, colonial mansions in various states of repair, bougainvillea erupting in fuchsia and orange from every wall.

The Escadaria Selaron — 250 mosaic steps covered in tiles from sixty countries by Chilean artist Jorge Selaron, who spent twenty years on them. Come at five PM when the day-trippers thin. Bar do Mineiro on Rua Paschoal Carlos Magno serves feijoada in a clay pot, thick with black beans and pork, on a veranda overlooking rooftops where the sky goes from blue to amber to violet.

After dinner, walk downhill on Rua Dias de Barros. Galleries with open doors. Samba leaking from somewhere — acoustic, the kind one guitar can make when the guitarist is good. Streetlamps casting yellow circles on cobblestones. Find a miradouro at Rua Aprazivel and watch Rio light up below.

Santa Teresa is not easy — steep, uneven, demanding the kind of attention all beautiful complicated places demand. But at dusk it earns every step.