This was the Palermo house where Jorge Luis Borges spent his youth.

On July 24, our first full day, we walked down Avenida Borges to the Plaza Serrano and the district called Palermo Viejo.  Avenida Borges is named for Jorge Luis Borges, who grew up on it.  He wrote, “Palermo at that time — the Palermo where we lived, Serrano and Guatemala — was on the shabby northern outskirts of town, and many people, ashamed of saying they lived there, spoke in a dim way of living on the Northside.”  Today his old house is the two-story exception among highrise buildings.

Plaza d’Italia was the closest stop on the “subte” or subway.

We were also only a block from the subway and Plaza d’Italia.  In fact, we were close to everything.  In the morning, I was able to walk out of the apartment and, within a few paces, find a bakery, a grocery store (where we were delighted to find dulce de leche for our bread), and a verdudaría (a place to buy fresh fruit).  On that first morning, we walked to Plaza Serrano.  I bought a two-CD collection of Astor Piazzola.

We were surprised to see, in the bustling Palermo, a horse-drawn carriage.

After lunch, Carl led us on a walking tour down Avenida Santa Fe as far as Pueyrredón, about two miles.  That tired us out.  But in the evening, one of his fellow graduate students, Patricia Sever, joined us and we walked many more blocks to a restaurant named “El 22.”  Unfortunately, Bridget tripped on the uneven sidewalk, fell, and scratched the lens in her glasses.  She was bruised, but that did not prevent her from visiting La Recoleta the next day.