>> and if it rains? <<

RIO. IF IT RAINS?
There is nothing more "carioca" than summer. Actually, the inhabitants of this city have the idea that the sun is theirs the entire year. Summer is the time when all new fashions are launched, whether that be clothing or idiomatic expressions. Yet, sometimes (very rarely) the sun takes a day off and it rains in Rio. But don't worry! It's a great opportunity to get to know the other side of the city, where there is lots of culture, shopping, and entertainment.

Shopping Centers
They are not only modern shopping centers. They have recreation and leisure areas with electronic games, rides, theme parks, bowling, theaters, movies and also food squares, true gastronomic centers. Some have parking with covered cart lanes.

Cinemark 12
A new movie center, where there are 12 stadium-like rooms, where it is possible to enter at 10 a.m. and watch different sessions without interruption until midnight. That's because the time between the end and the beginning of the movie sessions is just 15 minutes, so that the user may watch seven different films in one day at his visit to Cinemark 12 if he so desires. The movie rooms are equipped with gigantic screens and digital sound, have reclining chairs, with glass holders, arranged like an amphitheater, which allows for a better view by the spectator. For couples who want double seating, there are love seats without the arm support in the middle. Between one film and another, if you get hungry, the popcorn is great and there is also a snack bar and movie café. If you get really hungry, a fast food service with American characteristics offers hamburgers, sundaes, soft drinks, and lots of French fries.

Late Afternoon
After visiting downtown, nothing better than an express coffee or cappuccino. There are plenty of good coffee shops and cigar shops. Some days it is possible to stretch the day by listening to popular Brazilian music at bars and antique shops on Lavradio street. Have fun!

Gávea Planetarium
With more than 20 years of history at the same address in Gávea, the Planetarium is expanding. In the space, Museum of the Universe, in the new Carl Zeiss dome, with a projection area of 700 square meters, capacity for 277 reclining chairs, and 23 meters in diameter, it is possible to see a sky with 10,000 stars, sparkling in their original colors (blue, green, and yellow, the national colors). Space travel may also be simulated, seeing the stars approaching, entering planets, and assisting galaxies in rotation. In this same dome, the hemispheric cinema projects thematic, ecological, and scientific films in 180 degrees. The Planetarium will continue to expand with a

forecast to install the Time Square, on a terrace with 12 thousand square meters, with sun, water, and sand dials. The Telescope Square that contains a sophisticated set of six different instruments for studying the stars. In the Planetarium, its primitive dome, the Galileo Galilei, continues with normal programming on Wednesdays, with lectures followed by telescope viewing on the terrace when it gets dark. And film sessions on Saturdays and Sundays, at 4:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. This true cultural center also has a theater, exposition rooms, video exhibition rooms, auditorium for lectures and debates, and a restaurant.

Real Gabinete Português de Leitura
The building in manuelino style (Portugal 1495-1521) houses the oldest literary association founded by the Portuguese in South America. Its collection contains the most complete collection of Camões, including the edition of "Os Lusíadas", dated 1837, an epic poem by Luis de Camões, originally published in 1572.

National Library
Founded in 1810, with a collection of books that had belonged to the Ajuda, Infantado, and Paço das Necessidades Libraries in Portugal, and which were brought to Brazil by the Portuguese Royal Family. The present-day library building, which was inaugurated in 1910, has nearly eight million volumes, 600,000 manuscripts, 250,000 prints, illustrations, and maps, in addition to 185 incunabula (books printed before 1501).