See Rio in 360-degree views of dozens of Olympic-area sites

Wouldn’t it be great to have wings and serenely fly above Olympics host Rio de Janeiro to see all of the city’s beauty? Unfortunately you can’t, but you can get a taste of what Brazil might be like by visiting AirPano (airpano.com).

The site, created by a team of Russian photo enthusiasts, features 360-degree revolving panoramas shot from a bird’s-eye view, most frequently from helicopters. These days, the website has more than two dozen Rio locations a click away.

There are about 3,000 high-resolution aerial panoramas of more than 300 global locations, with new virtual tours published every week. There also are high-definition video panoramic tours. After you select a location, you can choose to passively watch the spherical scene turn a full 360 degrees — with or without music — or interact by taking control and turning it in any direction. You can zoom in to see detail, or pull back for a greater vista. Go full screen to totally immerse yourself in the scene.

When you see a “?” on the image, you can touch it with your cursor to find out what you are looking at. Some question marks include active links to get more information about the spot. Icons on the bottom of the page adjust sound, allow you to share the site on social media, show/hide a map and turn auto-rotate on or off.

Like a tourist who never stopped to appreciate the wonders of his hometown, we were most fascinated with the Grand Tour of Manhattan and its 30 different breathtaking day and evening views of the city that never sleeps.