World Cup Brazil city guide: Curitiba
BBC Brazil's Camilla Costa offers an insider's view of the 12 cities hosting matches in this year's Fifa World Cup tournament.
True to Brazil's multicultural identity, Curitiba is home to Germans, Italians, Japanese and Ukrainians. It even boasts the world's second-largest Polish community.
Since the city hosted the 1950 World Cup, its landscape has changed a great deal. Efforts to create a more attractive environment for tourists has turned it into an "ecological capital", with 30 parks.
Built in 1914 and renovated for the second time, Stadium Joaquim Americo (Arene da Baixada) was intended to be the country's first stadium with a retractable roof, in order to deal with Curitiba's frequent rain showers.
But construction delays and strikes put a stop to those plans. The roof will now be added after the World Cup.
Food and drink
The region has its own species of pine tree and Curitiba's name can be roughly translated as pine tree land.
In June and July, you can pick from several dishes containing pinhao, or pine nuts. There are snacks, desserts, risottos and even soup.
You can even buy pine nut peelers to take home as a souvenir.