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Buenos Aires - more Italy than Spain!
Buenos Aires is said to be the European City of Latin America and in many ways this is very true. The architecture is unquestionably reminiscent of many European cities. Balconies, iron gates, shutters, large windows and detailed cornicing, abound.
However, many guide books feed a common misconception. In truth, even though Argentina was of course a Spanish colony, Buenos Aires owes more to the Italian way of life (particularly Rome) than that of Madrid or Barcelona, for example.
Porteños, people from Buenos Aires, eat a lot of pizza and pasta, when not eating the famous Argentine meat asados, choripans or milanesas, for example. In fact, pizza is probably the primary food choice of most porteños that´s not an Argentine creation and as such, the city is crawling with pizza resaurants and take-away, late-night spots.
Fernet, an Italian alcoholic drink, is hugely popular too. Any bar or club will serve the spirit and it is a real favourite amongst the younger generation. Breakfast is a strong coffee (cortado, meaning that the coffee is "cut" with milk, producing a strong caffeine shot in the morning), accompanied by two or three croissants (medialunas) or facturas (a selection of sweet pastries); the Italian sweet tooth clearly shining through.
A Parisian hot chocolate-style breakfast with a few biscuits is another popular choice, but the consumption of cereals or fruits that would be found on the Spanish 
breakfast menu are nowhere to be found in Buenos Aires. Ice-cream is also something that porteños do incredibly well and it would have to be a very hard customer who would come to the conclusion that ice-cream in Buenos Aires doesn´t live up to the Italian equivalent.
Fashion is also far more Italian than it is Spanish. The strong lines, structured suits, glossy hair and natural make-up speaks "bella." Having said that, some of the fashion trends in Buenos Aires are less than glamourous, to put it mildly. The hand gestures, with fingers pressed together and shook underneath the chin for emphasis during conversation, bears no relation to the Spanish culture that one would expect. The movements are Italian through and through.
Even the accent of the born and bred porteño might make someone think they were in Naples rather than Valencia. The rhythms of the speech, the elongation of the words and the facial expressions that accompany them are more than passionate and serve to further associate the Latin capital with the "football boot" across the Atlantic.
In short, Buenos Aires is most certainly European in many respects, but Spanish, like its conquered routes should signify? Not really.
Tracey Chandler, originally from East London in the UK, is a single, slightly mad female, writing for a non-profit organisation in Buenos Aires. She moved to South America in the summer of 2008 and spends her time travelling the world to feed her freelance writing pursuits. For more of Tracey Chandler's advice on living and working in Buenos Aires, and other places in South America, click on the following links:
Tracey's Website: Lononder Abroad
Tracey's Weekly Column for Non-Profit Org "South American Explorers"
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