La Librería de Avila

Buenos Aires is, among other things, a city of bookstores. Some reports claim that it has the world's highest number of bookstores per capita. The historic center concentrates many of them. La Librería de Avila (@libreriadeavila; 9am-6pm Mon-Fri, 10am-2.30pm Sat) is the oldest bookstore in Buenos Aires. It was founded in 1785 and is still as vibrant as ever on the corner of Alsina and Bolívar streets, close to the famous Colegio Nacional Buenos Aires, where many of the country's presidents studied. Look for the picture near the entrance depicting the store as it looked in colonial times. The bookstore has two floors and a stock of 150,000 books, including a number of rare and antique texts such as first editions of Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, Ezequiel Martínez Estrada and Manuel Puig. If you are lucky, you can meet Miguel Avila, its owner, who is something of a legend in BA's book world.