Rio is a city covered in art, and I loved walking around the city to see the scattered graffiti, beautiful architecture, and statues dedicated to the culture and history of the city. The artwork is bright and bold, with painted murals covering the walls near any busy tourist attraction, such as Christ the Redeemer and the Escadaria Selarón. I was excited to see the churches covered in blue tile, which is a practice that was brought over from Portugal. In Portugal, the buildings and sidewalks are covered in tile. Blue tile however is saved for religious buildings, because the Portuguese were the first to figure out how to create blue tiles, as the color blue was the most difficult to capture on tiles.
I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again; I love architecture. I loved the brightly painted buildings, from pink to lavender, orange to green, I saw every color in the rainbow. The details were just as stunning with brightly colored railings and shutters, roof tiles, and intricate molding. My favorite was the archway in the middle of the city seen below and the lavender house with red roof tiles that used a bathtub as a planter.