Private Artisans Tour Buenos Aires: Fileteado & Silversmith

Learn fileteado painting from the artist who does it, then walk where Buenos Aires keeps its 200-year craft tradition alive

A private artisans and makers tour in Buenos Aires where you visit working studios in San Telmo and La Boca, learn fileteado (the hand-painted decorative art on Argentine buses and signs) directly from artist Miguel Ángel Polizzi, and meet a silversmith whose work has reached the Vatican. The tour runs three hours with hotel pickup and an English-speaking guide. You'll take home a fileteado piece you paint yourself in the workshop.

Step-by-step itinerary

Explore Buenos Aires artisans and culture

• Visit fileteador Miguel Ángel Polizzi's workshop
• Take basic fileteado art class
• See Mafalda cartoon character artwork
• Visit Dulce de Leche specialty store
• View the narrowest house in Buenos Aires
• Pass by Pizzeria Pirilo
• Explore San Telmo market
• Walk through Plaza Dorrego flea market
• End with coffee at La Pulpería Quilapán

The experience

The tour starts at Miguel Ángel Polizzi's workshop in San Telmo, where the fileteador and his assistant walk you through the history and technique of fileteado: the distinctly Argentine art form that has decorated everything from colectivo buses to shop signs for two centuries. You get a hands-on introduction and paint your own fileteado work to keep, so you leave with something you made, not just saw.

From there the route moves through the neighborhoods where this craft lives. You'll pass the narrowest house in the city (2.50 meters wide, built in the 1820s for freed slaves), stop at Plaza Dorrego where the San Telmo Fair runs on Sundays with antique stalls and street artists, and walk through the San Telmo market where vendors sell handicrafts, records and old toys alongside spices and everyday goods. The silversmith visit shows you why Argentine artisans have clients as far as the Vatican: the precision and tradition behind work most travelers never know exists.

The drive loops through Recoleta, Retiro and Puerto Madero so you see the neighborhoods without stopping at each one. The tour ends at La Pulpería Quilapán, a restored historic house that mixes Argentine folklore with Buenos Aires architecture, where you sit down with coffee, homemade bread, jam and sweet milk. An air-conditioned vehicle and professional guide (in English or Spanish) handle the logistics, and the driver picks you up and drops you at your hotel.

What’s included

• Air-conditioned vehicle.
• professional guide.
• hotel pickup and drop-off.
• fileteado painting class where you create and take home your own work.
• visits to the silversmith studio and San Telmo artisan workshops.
• coffee, homemade bread, jam and sweet milk at the end.

Before you book

Days and timesEvery day13 departure times: the first at 10:00, the last at 16:00

Book up to12h before

GroupPrivate

Live guideEnglish, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Russian

Meeting point and pickupHotel pickup included.

Cancellation and refundsFree cancellation up to 24 h before the start. After that, no refund.

Prices and times updated yesterday

Good to know

Low physical effort

Operated by Signature Tours

Is this one for you?Three hours is short enough to fit artisan visits and a neighborhood walk into a single morning or afternoon without eating the rest of your day, but long enough that you're not rushing through the workshops or the market. If you want to see where Buenos Aires' craft traditions actually live, not a museum version of them, rather than hit a checklist of famous plazas, this tour trades the breadth of a bigger city tour for depth in one neighborhood and real makers.

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Top questions

What languages is the tour guided in?

Live guide in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Russian.

What exactly is fileteado and why is it so Argentine?

Fileteado is a hand-painted decorative art unique to Buenos Aires, featuring intricate scrollwork, bright colors and lettering that has adorned colectivo buses, shop signs and storefronts for 200 years. It started as a working-class tradition and became so tied to the city's identity that it's now recognized as part of Buenos Aires' cultural heritage. The workshop visit shows you how it's still made by hand the same way.

Do I actually paint something in the workshop, or just watch?

You paint your own fileteado work during the class with Miguel Ángel Polizzi and take it home as a souvenir. The artist and his assistant teach you the basics so even first-timers leave with a piece they made themselves.

How long is the tour and what neighborhoods do we visit?

The tour runs three hours and covers San Telmo (where most stops happen), La Boca, and passes through Recoleta, Retiro and Puerto Madero. You stop at the fileteado workshop, the silversmith studio, Plaza Dorrego, the San Telmo market and antique fair, and end at La Pulpería Quilapán for coffee and homemade bread.

Is this tour good for kids?

Yes, it's kid-friendly and suitable for all fitness levels. Children must be accompanied by an adult, and the hands-on fileteado class and market walks tend to hold their attention better than a standard sightseeing tour.