A melancholy hopefulness hangs in the air, creating a longing for a time and place that have either passed or have never been. Sensual sorrow fills the dancers as they embrace in the square, retracing the steps of those who have come before and foreshadowing those who will come after. While its mystique floats dreamily through all of Buenos Aires, the tango seems most at home in San Telmo. Once the very heart of prosperity, long abandoned by the elite, San Telmo has lost the sheen of prestige but maintained the soft patina of an old soul.