Plaza de San Juan

Where you are standing. The square is the centre of the old barrio of San Juan Moyotlan —"place of mosquitoes" in Nahuatl— one of the four quarters into which Tenochtitlan, and later the viceregal city, was divided. That origin is where the names of both the market and the square come from.

What is around it. A few metres away is the San Juan market, the city's gourmet market, where chefs from well-known restaurants come to stock up; round the corner stands the Buen Tono church, the only remnant of the cigarette factory that once filled the block. The district still works by specialised trades, with whole streets given over to one line of goods —a surviving logic of the old Centro.

Getting there and when. San Juan de Letrán (Line 8) and Salto del Agua (Lines 1 and 8) metro stations are a few blocks away. Mornings are the best moment: the market is fully stocked and the square is quiet. At night the area empties out, so use a ride app.