2 Best Sights in Centro Histórico, Mexico City

Located in a colonial building with lovely patios, this former college started out in the 18th century as a Jesuit school for the sons of wealthy Mexicans. Frida Kahlo also famously studied here as an adolescent. It's now a splendid museum that showcases outstanding regional exhibitions, but the best reason to visit is the interior murals by Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and Fernando Leal.

First built as a jewelry store in 1892, the belle epoque--style Esmeralda Building has had various uses over the years, including as a government office, a bank, a disco called La Opulencia, and, since 2006, as the Museo de Estanquillo, housing the eclectic collection of the great 20th-century journalist, Carlos Monsiváis. The museum takes its name from the term used through the 19th and early 20th centuries for small neighborhood convenience shops, which stocked virtually everything a person could need. It's an appropriate name for a museum dedicated to rotating exhibitions drawn from a total collection of 20,000 individual pieces. Shows might range from cartoons, stamps, and etchings to photos, lithographs, drawings, and paintings from some of the greatest names in Mexican art; the collection is as diverse and democratic as Monsiváis was in his writing. The rooftop café and bookstore offer a stunning view over the domes of San Felipe Neri la Profesa and the hubbub of Madero below.