Sao Paulo, Brazil: A Decadent Adventure

The pulse of Sao Paulo, Brazil, beats louder than ever as a booming economy and thriving fashion industry create a sexy new renaissance in one of the hottest cities in the world.

With infinite skyscrapers and 40-story slums clad in graffiti and shattered windows, this high-rise metropolis of 10 million people sprawls farther than the eye can see. Or at least as far as the air quality allows.

Italian Design Hotel

Jardins is the premiere residential and shopping district of Sao Paulo. Tree-lined streets with three-story storefronts are interspersed with 60-story mega-condos. Security guards and bodyguards are everywhere, more as a fashion accessory than true law enforcement presence.

It's here you'll find deco-modern Fasano Hotel, the city's hottest hotel, with its prominent clock tower and elegant brick-and-glass entry.

A dark lobby is decked out in '20s club chairs the color of caramel and leather furnishings assembled amongst 10-person tufted sofas. An adjacent drinking bar is a cigar-smoking gentleman's club of cognac drinkers chatting about the day's business news.

Rooms show their Italian lineage with marble bathrooms and quality minimalist furnishings with neighborhood views.

	Fasano
	Credit: Fasano

The Fasano is hotter than ever with a new outpost in Rio and soon in Punta del Este. Should the hotel be sold out, book into the Emiliano located a few blocks away on a busier thoroughfare of the Jardins.

Its aging, all-white lobby once ruled the Sao Paulo hotel landscape with trendy furnishings and common areas that are beginning to show their true age but still lure jetsetters and travel elite. The 24th-floor gym and adjacent spa should not be missed.