A theatre turned bookshop, a giant steel flower that opens with the sun, and a grand avenue of belle époque cafés.
El Ateneo Grand Splendid opened in 1919 as a theatre on Avenida Santa Fe, later became a cinema, and in 2000 was turned into a bookshop, keeping its boxes, balconies and painted ceiling.
Shelves now fill the stalls and the curved balconies, the old boxes are reading nooks, and the café sits on the stage under the red curtain.
A short walk north, the Floralis Genérica is a huge stainless-steel flower given to the city by the architect Eduardo Catalano in 2002, designed to open its petals in the morning and close them at dusk.
Across town, Avenida de Mayo runs from Plaza de Mayo to the Congress, lined with Parisian-style buildings. Here are Café Tortoni, open since 1858, and the Palacio Barolo, a 1920s office tower full of references to Dante, with a lighthouse you can climb on a tour.
Two easy halves of a day.
See the steel flower open in Plaza de las Naciones Unidas, beside the Law Faculty.
Walk or ride to the bookshop; climb to the top balcony for the view over the old stalls.
Take a coffee on the old stage, then catch the Subte or a taxi to the centre.
Join a Palacio Barolo tour up to its lighthouse for a view along the avenue.
End at Café Tortoni for coffee and medialunas, or come back for an evening tango show.
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El Ateneo is on Avenida Santa Fe near Callao; Avenida de Mayo is on Subte line A, which runs beneath it.
The bookshop opens daily into the evening. Palacio Barolo is by guided tour only; book ahead.
The Floralis mechanism is sometimes out of action; if so, it stays open or closed.
Buenos Aires practical notes →Photographs from Wikimedia Commons and Pexels under their licences.
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