By Peter Bills

A city is defined by its cafés, not its landmarks. Cafes welcome people; to linger, to love, to luxuriate.

Paris is famous for them, they are a central feature of the living, breathing French capital city.

It is, therefore, hardly coincidental that Buenos Aires is known as the "Paris of the southern hemisphere".

Elegant columns and old-style lamps provide a picture of tradition

Its cafés are numerous and enchanting, rich in history, culture and architectural delights.

Here, in the capital of Argentina, delights are served up in more than simply a culinary aspect. Cafés have been important staging posts in our lives.

We lounged in them when too young to invade pubs or bars, but old enough to don our brash, bright clothes and sit chatting to our first girl or boyfriends.

Partners have been ensnared, friendships forged and business deals concluded in them. They comprise a rich pageant within most people's lives.

For the lover of cafés, Buenos Aires is a treat, as tempting as the cream cake with mid-morning coffee or afternoon tea.

Few have more history or are as aesthetically pleasing as Café Tortoni on Avenida de Mayo, in the Centro district.

Elegant columns and old-style lamps provide a picture of tradition; the little tables on the tiled floor with small wooden chairs, somehow offer comfort, indeed cosiness.

It has been here since 1858 and is known as a shrine to the local tango culture.

Like all the best cafés, it puts on literary events, even stages tango dancing in the basement and, an absolutely essential requirement for a proper café, offers free newspapers to peruse with your latte or double expresso.

Even better, chess, backgammon, dominoes and billiards can be played.

At La Biela on Avenida Quintana in the Recoleta suburb, you find a very different crowd.

As one Buenos Aires resident described them: "Judges, crooks and others dose themselves in the mornings with genteel cups of coffee while reading of each other's exploits in the paper. Then, with a nod to their rivals, they go out into the city to battle each other the rest of the day."

Like Café Tortoni, the café dates to the 1850s. Biela means piston rod, and the café was so named because most of its customers were originally car racers or fans of the sport.

It has become something of a legend in the city with its Veredita (special sandwich) or tea.

Around 5 in the afternoon is a favoured time for people to crowd the café, sitting outside in summer to people gaze.

In the San Telmo district, look for Café Moliere, at Chile 99 y Balcarce.

Here, the food is excellent but they will also throw in a tango show most evenings for free. Tango is the vivid, energetic face of this city.

Stroll down a major shopping thoroughfare like the Calle Florida pedestrian mall in the heart of downtown Buenos Aires and besides superb shopping, you are likely to come upon a couple tango dancing in the street in the early evening.

Those out strolling before supper form a good natured and admiring crowd, for these people can dance, seriously.

Here, too, you can enjoy a show with dinner for a set price of around 30 Argentine pesos (about R65 to R70). There is music and patrons, too, can dance.

The place throbs with sound and action most nights.

The variety of cafés in this city is superb, unmatched perhaps anywhere else in the world.

For those plagued by the locust-like spread of chain operators like Starbucks in most cities of the western world, Buenos Aires is a veritable haven for lovers of the true, traditional café.

Few are as impressive as Ateneo Grand Splendid, on Avenida Santa Fe in Capital Federal.

This beautiful, classical building dates back to 1919 and is the largest bookstore in all Latin America. It used to be an old cinema but was converted and twinned with the Opera de Paris theatre.

Today, you can still view the superb friezes and other original features such as the magnificent dome.

Better still, you can poke around the labyrinthine areas of bookshelves, pull down a few titles and find quiet reading places in the old balconies on the first floor and on the main area.

Where the stage once was, is now a fine café, which can also be used to read books and relax.

Another essential requirement for a proper café, comfortable sofas, can be found here, too.

Buenos Aires has a multiplicity of delights, a treasure trove of activities, interests and pleasures to offer. But its cafés represent the heartbeat of this grand city.

Take time out to enjoy them on your visit.

• This article was originally published on page 5 of Saturday Star on February 03, 2006