Porto Alegre literally meaning Joyous Port is one of the largest cities in Brazil, and the capital city of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. Porto Alegre is one of the most important cultural, political and economic centers of Southern Brazil. Porto Alegre held the best standard of living among all Brazilian capitals for many years and it was the only Brazilian city listed on Jones Lang LaSalle's World Winning Cities. It is also home to such famous football clubs as Grêmio and Internacional. Porto Alegre is mostly composed of Brazilians of European descent. Its colonization started in the mid-18th century, mostly with the arrival of Portuguese colonists from the Azores Islands. From 1748 to 1756, 2.300 Azoreans were sent to the region by the King of Portugal to protect Southern Brazil from neighboring invaders. These colonists, mostly composed of couples, established the city of Porto dos Casais (Port of the Couples), nowadays Porto Alegre. In 1775, 55 percent of Rio Grande do Sul's population was of Azorean Portuguese origin. The gastronomic features have the same attention: there are countless options – but the favorite dish will always be the famous "gaucho" barbecue, accompanied by the inseparable chimarrão gourd. Whoever strolls along Porto Alegre’s streets is surprised with its perennial vegetation, hills, and ponds. What is also dazzling is the preservation condition of its historic buildings, which shelter memories and culture. But what really charms visitors is the surprisingly harmonious match of its welcoming manner of an interior town with the fast hustle and bustle of a large urban center, its architecture as the icon of modernity, and the cultural heterogeneity. Porto Alegre offers large spaces for shows, as the "Anfiteatro Pôr-do-Sol” (Sunset Amphitheater) on the shores of Guaíba Lake, or areas for qualified exhibitions, as the rooms of Mário Quintana House of Culture and the Gasholder Plant.