2 Best Sights in Petropolis, Side Trips from Rio

The magnificent 44-room palace that was the summer home of Dom Pedro II, emperor of Brazil, and his family in the 19th century is now the Imperial Museum. The colossal structure is filled with polished wooden floors, artworks, and grand chandeliers. You can also see the diamond-encrusted gold crown and scepter of Brazil's last emperor, as well as other royal jewels. Visitors are handed soft slippers on arrival and asked to slip them over their own shoes to avoid damaging the antique floors. (Children will love sliding around on the polished floors in their slippered feet.)

Known as encantado (enchanted), this diminutive cottage wouldn’t look out of place in a fairy-tale wood. Santos Dumont, one of the world’s first aviators, built the house in 1918 to a scale in keeping with his own tiny size. The eccentric genius’s inventions fill the house, including a heated shower he developed before most homes even had running water. The home doesn’t have a kitchen because Dumont ordered his food from a nearby hotel—the first documented restaurant delivery service in Brazil.