Florida Street (or Calle Florida in Spanish) is one of Buenos Aires’s famous tourist attractions. Okay, so… we’re tourists, aren’t we? And the malls in Recoleta, where we’re staying, are just ever so chi-chi and correct. And full of chain stores a lot like those we have back home. We’d like to see some shopping that’s a little more colorful and local.

Calle Florida is certainly colorful. And busy, with street vendors selling their wares on both sides of the street as well as up and down its middle, for block after block after block.

What we hadn’t expected–though if we’d read more about the street’s long history as a pedestrian shopping street, we should have known–is that Calle Florida is also lined with beautiful old shopping galleries.

We also found some attractive and interesting street details.

Finally, ending on a gargoylish theme, this one is from the door of the university administration building just a few blocks away from Calle Florida.