A Mexico City day from Condesa cafés to the Centro's murals

A French-Mexican bakery inside a blue-tiled courtyard. Order the guava-and-cheese rol, a concha, a flat white. Sit on the patio in the back. Lines build by 9:30, so arrive before — or order takeaway and walk it to Parque México.

The heart of Condesa, laid out in a 1920s racetrack oval. Art deco bandstand, a pond with ducks, dog walkers circling. There's a coffee kiosk on the western edge. Walk the outer loop once, the inner loop once, then find a bench and sit.

The main square of Mexico City and the largest cathedral in the Americas. Enter through the main door, walk to the high altar slowly — the stone floor tilts, proof that the cathedral is still sinking into what was once a lake. The Aztec drums on the corner are audible from inside.

The main Aztec temple, excavated only in the 1970s after an electricity-company crew hit a monolith during street works. The site is mostly outdoors; the museum alongside holds the best reliefs. An hour covers both. The scale is the point — this was the centre of Tenochtitlán when the Spanish arrived.

An old-Mexico lunch in a 19th-century townhouse two blocks from the Zócalo. The pan de elote (cornbread) and any of the moles are the dishes to order. Linger over the cup of drinking chocolate at the end; the recipe is from a convent.

The art nouveau opera house with Diego Rivera's Man at the Crossroads on the third floor — the mural that caused Rockefeller to destroy the original at Rockefeller Center. The Tamayo and Orozco works on the same floor are shorter queues and arguably stronger.

A mezcalería above a taqueria, tiled with old advertising posters. Forty or fifty mezcals by the glass — ask the bartender what to try based on flavour, not region. They'll bring a plate of orange slices and sal de gusano to go with it.