Country Article / Postcards

Strolling in Style

Date: 02/24/2005

Wandering on foot along the stylish streets of Recoleta, Buenos Aires' chicest neighborhood, is an exercise in aesthetics. From the fashionable people and trendy cafes to the classic architecture and broad boulevards, this is where famously style-conscious porteños show their best faces.

Start with a morning coffee on Calle Santa Fe, home to some of the top boutiques in the city. Café culture is serious business in Buenos Aires, so get yourself a seat at the window, order un cortado con media lunas (café au lait with croissant), and do what porteños do best--people watch. The scene is more like a fashion catwalk than a busy street.

Then hit the sidewalk shops, department stores, and inner malls as you walk west along the wide Santa Fe toward Avenida 9 de Julio, the widest boulevard in the world. As you turn left, keep walking on the left side of the street and head toward the French and Brazilian embassies, both housed in architecturally classic buildings. Take a little detour down the quiet Avenida Alvear, maybe the chicest of all the chic neighborhoods in the area, with it's 19th-century mansions, haute-couture boutiques, and foreign embassies lining both sides. A few more blocks down is the world-renowned Alvear Palace Hotel.

Continue on, and the green spaces open up before you, as you pass a large rubber tree and a row of Parisian-style cafés (great for a short rest!) and head into the parkland. A bustling square hosts a weekend artisan market. Stroll down the sidewalk, mingling with the vendors along the way, until you come to the labyrinthine resting place for Argentine elites--the Recoleta Cemetery. Deep within, you'll find the tomb of Evita Peron.

Next door, the Nuestra Señora del Pilar Basilica and the Centro Cultural Recoleta are also worth a visit. Touring around the Centro Cultural will lead you to the swanky Buenos Aires Design Center, another hotspot for shopping and dining. The city's finest art museum, the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, is just across the street.

Christie Pashby
For International Living