<<< series begins that way
Afternoon of Thursday, December 28:
Back to the hotel in Palermo for lunch, and then our shopping guide was to meet us there at 2:30 to take us to the exclusive and secret places in the city! So happy that Elaine had found her because this excursion was very much up my alley!
Our guide was named Sophie and she was a British expat who’d been living in BA for eight-ish years. Turns out, she lives in Palermo, very close to the hotel. She was a fashion journalist turned shopping expert who now does this almost exclusively. She takes people to artisan workshops and designer boutiques and wherever else they want to go. Sometimes she takes groups of diplomats out; sometimes she takes tourists; sometimes people on business or whatever! Dream job!
She took us to what felt like all over the city, but I know that we only scratched the surface as we only really did a 4-hour tour. Still we got a feel for so many things:
Jewelry: Went to the backroom studio of a jewelry designer where we got to see and the difference between sterling silver and alpaca silver (more blackened). I ended up getting a few pieces in sterling AND brass. The great thing about jewelry is that it can easily be carried home
Leather Accessories: Another backroom studio - and these studios were not storefronts. These were workshops (entered via mazes of buildings, hallways and stairwells) where we could literally see the tools used and pieces in process. This place had exquisite bags and small accessories, but they were not cheap and I have SO MANY handbags and small leather goods. I really wanted to buy a horned-accented tassel as a gift for myself and maybe some friends, but the designer wouldn’t sell them that way. Still, gorgeous stuff.
Leather Apparel: This was a small tailor shop downtown where they would custom make jackets, coats, whatever made to measure. While I liked the stuff in the shop, I was not in the market to have a leather coat made for me. I have about 5 leather jackets and certainly did not need another as these were not that special - at least not from my vantage point - they had a few basic shapes that you could pick out and customize the details of the collars, pockets, etc. as well as use the kind of leather you preferred (goat, calf, etc.) I suppose it would be fun to custom create your own jacket, I wasn’t into it. Could it be because it was nearly 100 degrees out? Possibly.
Shopping Transportation Sidebar: During our shopping excursion, our transportation was via taxi (and Uber) as well as on foot, and as part of our foot travel, we crossed the widest avenue in the WORLD - all 14 lanes of it! It took about 4 stoplights to do it, though, so it wasn’t in one fell swoop, but it was pretty crazy! It’s while crossing this avenue we learned to watch our phones (iphones) because Apple does not have a license to sell in Argentina and theft is very high when people recognize them, so we were told not to wave them around or set them on the table while dining because thieves can just snatch them right up!
Boutique Art: A shop similar to boutique shops in most of the world that carry artsy items - apparel, jewelry, artwork, gifts, etc. created by local artisans. It was very fashion forward and well-shopped. Clearly a shopping destination for US tourists and/or professionals as a lot of English was heard in this place.
Home Decor: Next stop was a very special home decor place that carried all kinds of hand-crafted items from Argentina. I loved this store. There were a lot of sheepskin covered chairs and hand-carved bowls and furniture. They also do wine tastings at the store, and it felt like I was in someone’s house.
Textiles: OMG. Here we saw the most amazing baby alpaca, baby llama and vicuna woolen textile products - from scarves to sweaters to pillow covers and home decor items. I tried on several sweaters that were absolutely gorgeous (even in 95+ degree weather), but in the end, it came down to what could be packed in my bag and what would get the most use from me. I chose a tonal baby alpaca woven scarf that can be worn in the Spring and Fall
And of course, WINE! Sophie took us to a beautiful little tasting cafe where we had a bottle of Torrontes, which is a white wine grape varietal from Argentina. In fact, the only grape that comes from Argentina (Malbec is actually a French grape, did you know?). Here, we sat and relaxed and had something of a happy hour with Sophie where we got to know each other a little better. Turns out, she was about to get MARRIED over the weekend - to a guy from the US! We also got to meet one of the owners of the bar and her brand new baby as they showed up while we were finishing our wine.
As we were walking back to the hotel after what felt like a very thorough day of shopping, we passed a place that Sophie pointed out as having a “cool rooftop bar”. I took note of it by taking a photo of the name of the place and Elaine and I thought we might visit it after our big dinner at the steak place that evening. We’d already had such an amazing day, but we had to get back to the hotel to get ready for…
THE STEAK PLACE!
Okay you guys, this place (La Carniceria) was the MOST AMAZING steak experience I’ve ever had! And thanks to Sophie, our shopping guide, it was even better because she’d given us some recommendations that we took to heart and tried.
First of all, we had a reservation, but when we got there they told us that we were going to be sitting at the bar…which seemed fine, okay. But then we realized that we were also sitting directly in front of the fire where they were cooking the steaks. Elaine and I both thought, UH OH…it’s going to be waaaay too hot to sit here.
But it really wasn’t, because we actually got the best seats in the house! Watching the cooks grill the steaks was fascinating and fun to video and post on Instagram!
Sophie had told us to order Gin & Tonics…which, weird, we thought, but we decided to give it a try. They did not disappoint, these gigantic glasses filled with fruit, gin and tonic were super refreshing after a long, hot day. She’d also recommended we get this grilled parmesan cheese or something like parmesan (right, Elaine?), and OMG. Sooooooo good.
But then, the steaks. The motherfuckin’ steaks as big as our heads!! We could see them grilling and we got nervous because…damn. Can you see how big these SLABS are??! How were we going to even start? We thought we should have gotten one to share, but the waiter guy behind the bar was like, no way…too hard to share these puppies, and I guess we agreed because it would have made such a mess, but WOW. These things were HUGE.
So they came off the grill and out in front of us, and I ate maybe ⅛ of mine. And yes, I can pack it in - trust.
What was really funny was that there was a small guy sitting next to us at the bar who was eating everything in sight - he’d already had the cheese appetizer AND a massive steak like we were having. He ate the whole damn thing, licked his plate clean and even went for DESSERT! How on earth did he fit all of that food into his tiny body? The world will never know.
Anyway. Meat-a-palooza, meatfest, meat frenzy for sure!
At that point, we were friendly with the guys behind the bar and told them that we were going to need a taxi to the rooftop bar, and he asked us where we were going, so I showed him the photo I’d taken earlier. He was like, oh hell NO, you don’t need to take a taxi there! It’s only like 4 blocks away! And then he gave us some super easy instructions, verbally.
So we left the steak joint and started walking.
…and walking, and walking.
It was then that we discovered that Argentinians lie…or at least stretch the truth (though as we went through the trip we did discover that they do LIE, but I digress). Thing is, when they tell you it’s 4 blocks, what they really mean is that it’s 8 blocks and then you have to turn a corner and walk 4 MORE blocks. Elaine kept checking her map, and sure enough it ended up being about 14 blocks of rugged sidewalk in the dark. But that’s okay! Because it was still fun to walk the streets and see the sights and hear the people sitting in the cafes. It was fine…but we did learn a lesson.
We got to the bar with the rooftop patio and went upstairs, but the place was packed…all except for the bar, so we decided to sit at the bar on the stools and order a drink.
But the problem was that we couldn’t fit our asses on these barstools! They must have been made for 18-year-old Argentinian models or something?! So freaking uncomfortable, but also the ONLY place we could sit/stand in the whole bar.
So we struggled through and ordered drinks…but the bartenders were like, “No. You can’t have that. Don’t you want something like…” and named off some crazy shit that we were clueless about. Thing is, it was one of those handcrafted hipster spots where making drinks is an art form. So we obliged and ordered some kind of craft cocktails that were weird and took like 24842874 minutes to make. It was comical. Can you see this video??? Oh, and listen to the music - some kind of ambiant Asian stuff. Fascinating!
By the time we got our drinks (and mine SUCKED, by the way..I had the bartender add more…whatever to it to give it more flavor), we were pretty exhausted. We drank our drinks, a few more people came into the bar area and had no trouble sitting on the barstools! Ugh.
We decided to call it a night because, I mean look, it took me half the day to write this recap and now I’m exhausted just writing and re-living it!
Back to our homebase and called it a night. Whew!
of course, more to come!
xox,
GS
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