Cafe Tortoni

Yesterday Brad and I decided to visit one of the cities landmarks - Cafe Tortoni.

Cafe Tortoni is BA's most alluring cafe with its high ceilings, hardwood column, stainglass skylights, red leather chairs and fascinating picture covered walls. It is also the cities oldest cafe (opened in 1858). The cafe was a regular haunt of the great Argentine writer Jorge Louis Borges.

We caught the 64 bus downtown and got off one block from the Cafe. As we turned the corner we saw the cafe and a small queue at the door. We waited about 15 min and then were shown to our table. I ordered a submarino (which is hot milk with a chocolate bar added to it, which melts into the milk and is really rather yummy. Brad had his usual cafe con leche, we tried some churros (sticks of fried sweet pastry).

After the historical cafe experience we caught the bus down to Plaza Italia in Palermo and then caught a taxi down Plaza Serrano, which is just such a hip vibey wonderful place to be. Crowds of people, loads of restaurants, shops galore..... financial crisis!!! (not that evident here). We went specifically to a paper shop, then we went into a lovely bookstore and found a good selection of English books at reasonable prices. Then it was time for refreshments... sat down at pavement cafe, ordered a beer, a glass of wine and a bowl of papa fritas, and the watched the people walk by. A great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.