further to being the site of the first brazilian railway, petrópolis was also one of the first cities to have a telephone - in 1876, in fact, after dom pedro ii visited the philadelphia exposition, he had his farm connected to his palace via phone line. 

understanding a bit about the history and heritage of petrópolis will add a new dimension to experiencing and discovering this charming town - the city of petrópolis maintains an official webpage on this link, offering additional information of public services and more.

part of the rio de janeiro state department of tourism (Secretaria de Estado de Turismo - SETUR), useful and important is the information provided by Turisrio - Companhia de Turismo do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, that via this link offers information on many important cities in the state including petrópolis, with special attention to areas of high cultural and touristic value reachable in 3 hours or less from rio de janeiro, so classified in the program 'rio +3', available in pdf format via this link, and downloadable for free here.