Sidewalks of Rio de Janeiro
The sidewalks of Rio, specifically Copacabana and Ipanema beaches, are most recognized in Rio for their mosaic artistry. Constructed of black and white stones, their mosaic appearance comes from a traditional Portuguese style pavement, calçada (pronounced cal-sah-da). Copacabana’s calçada was designed by Roberto Burle Marx and completed in 1970. Sundays, the main streets alongside the calçadas on both beaches are closed to traffic, which allows residents and tourists the entire area of the beach free to appreciate on bikes, skateboards, roller blades, or even just to walk.
When visiting family, my mom would always say, “Let’s go for a walk on the calçadão–which translates to ‘the big sidewalk’–but to me, having never seen a sidewalk as beautiful on such a grand scale, I understood calçadão to mean: THE sidewalk.
And I still do 🙂
