Feria de San Telmo

San Telmo is the oldest barrio in Buenos Aires, a grid of cobbled streets, low colonial houses and faded mansions just south of Plaza de Mayo, and on Sundays it hosts the city's most famous street fair. The Feria de San Telmo began in the 1970s as an antiques market on Plaza Dorrego, the small square at its heart, and has grown into a fair that runs along Calle Defensa for many blocks, from near Plaza de Mayo down to Avenida San Juan and beyond toward Parque Lezama. The square itself remains the domain of the antique dealers, whose stalls are crowded with soda siphons in coloured glass, silver mate gourds, old gramophones, porcelain, tango records, cutlery and curiosities from the city's grand past; along Defensa the stalls change to crafts, leather goods, jewellery, illustrations, textiles, vintage clothing, vinyl and souvenirs, with food carts selling empanadas, choripán and fresh orange juice. Street musicians, puppeteers, living statues and tango couples perform for tips, and in the early evening Plaza Dorrego often turns into an open-air dance floor. The fair is the best way to experience San Telmo, but the barrio is worth exploring in its own right. Its streets were the address of wealthy families until a yellow fever epidemic in 1871 drove them north to Recoleta, after which the abandoned mansions were divided into conventillos for immigrants, and the old patios, balconies and carved doors survive everywhere. Look for the Pasaje de la Defensa, a restored nineteenth-century house with shops around its patios, the Mafalda statue on the corner of Chile and Defensa, where Quino's comic-strip heroine sits on a bench for photographs, and the Mercado de San Telmo, a magnificent iron-framed market hall from the 1890s that now mixes greengrocers and butchers with antique dealers, coffee bars and excellent small food stalls.

Visiting well: the fair runs on Sundays from about mid-morning to late afternoon, and it is at its best from late morning to early afternoon, when all the stalls are up and the street is lively but not yet packed. Start at the Plaza de Mayo end and walk south along Defensa toward Plaza Dorrego, browsing as you go, then have lunch in the Mercado de San Telmo or in one of the traditional bodegones and parrillas nearby. Antiques are not cheap, and prices for visitors can be negotiable; cash in pesos helps for small purchases, though many stallholders now take cards or transfers. The crowds bring pickpockets, so wear your bag in front and keep phones in a zipped pocket. On weekdays the barrio is quieter, the antique shops along Defensa are open and the Mercado is busy with locals, which is a different and equally enjoyable experience.

San Telmo is also one of the best places in the city for tango. Several of the long-running dinner-show venues are here, and the neighbourhood has a scattering of traditional bars and milongas. On Sunday evenings, informal dancing often takes over Plaza Dorrego as the stalls pack up, and watching or joining in is free. For history, El Zanjón de Granados, an old mansion built over the excavated tunnels and cisterns of the city's first settlement, can be visited on guided tours, and the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires and the Museo Histórico Nacional in Parque Lezama are nearby.

San Telmo combines naturally with Plaza de Mayo, a ten-minute walk north along Defensa, and with La Boca, a short taxi ride south. A classic Sunday for first-timers: the fair and the Mercado in the late morning and early afternoon, a long lunch, a look at Caminito or the Casa Rosada, and an evening back in San Telmo for tango in the square or a show. Many visitors base themselves in the barrio for its character and its restored boutique hotels, but be aware that some streets are very quiet at night and that its nightlife is more about bars and tango than clubs.