Mexico City: Benefits of a home in Roma

Directing him to an address in Mexico City’s Roma Norte district — a leafy collection of apartments, artists’ studios, restaurants and parks — I felt proprietary toward the neighborhood even before reaching “our” apartment.

Each visit, usually spent at a hotel in the captivating Centro Histórico, peeled back another layer of one of the world’s most vibrant and underrated cities.

Roma Norte had been recommended by acquaintances who lived there, and the rent was less than half of a hotel stay.

[...] along with my daughter, Erin, and her fiancee, Kammee, we could afford to stay longer, free to follow the city’s natural rhythms as its residents do instead of packing every day with activities.

From the renowned National Anthropology Museum to the outlying National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) campus, the unfathomably huge city held us in thrall.

Nearby Parque Alameda, where an ancient Aztec mercado once stood, lured us to its verdant walkways and fountains during the day and beckoned at night with Christmas pageantry offering such whimsy as the holy family and Donald Duck cavorting on the same platform.

The zócalo (officially Plaza de la Constitución), one of the world’s larger public plazas, is famous for the Americas’ oldest and largest cathedral and the magnificent Diego Rivera murals in the National Palace — exactly where Moctezuma’s palace once stood.

[...] it treated us to an astonishing new attraction: a colossal ancient temple emerging from the depths of the earth adjacent to the square.

Since ancient times, when they built new pyramids over old, Mexicans have inhabited parallel universes, living side by side with and drawing strength from their past.

Corrupt officials, a devastating earthquake, the precipitous devaluation of the peso, even rampaging drug traffickers have dented but never defeated the resilience and optimism that define the Mexican character.

In deep pink capital letters, the billboard exhorted, “Queer Up! (Dykes, fags, weirdos & you)” — by way of announcing an educational convention on gender and sexuality.

Artists flocking to Roma’s tree-shaded buildings replete with Beaux Arts, Art Nouveau and Art Deco flourishes, and to other nearby neighborhoods coming into their own, prompted Architectural Digest to declare in a 2013 article, “Not since the days of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo has the Distrito Federal … received such attention as an international art center.”

The area was pretty funky then,” Johnston says, “but exciting for its mix of old architecture and its feel of old-time Mexico, which it still retains in spite of the influx of wealthy hipsters.

“One of the city’s top restaurants, Maximo Bistrot, opened right across the street,” he says.

The broken sidewalks have been fixed, neighbors have planted garden patches along the street, and the garbage … is now respectfully put in bins.

The small Plaza Luis Cabrera, not two blocks from the apartment, was exhibiting prints of Mexico’s vernacular architecture among the trees surrounding a fountain that filled most of the block.

On the way, we had to navigate around hundreds of men clad only in briefs and boxers, with protest flyers tied around their waists like loin cloths.

Saving money on hotels made it easy to splurge on the occasional taxi for longer forays.

Another day, it was Xochimilco, a remnant of the lake where the Aztecs built their capital, and the home of Dolores Olmedo, housing one of the finest collections of paintings by her friends Frida and Diego.

Erin cooked at least one meal each day, and when we ate out, it was usually in conjunction with an outing, such as the Ballet Folklorico at the Palacio de Bellas Artes.

The splendid French Belle Epoque confection is worth an excursion all on its own, but seeing the ballet in its theater is a rare treat.

Authorized taxis are the easiest and most secure way to get to the city; buy a ticket at a near baggage claim before going outside.

Private rooms currently rent for as little as $10 a night; apartments start at about $45.

Erin answered the siren call of an array of pastries, including ambrosial meringues, and walked out with a wondrous variety of sauces, free-range eggs and quinoa.