Coit Tower Perched on Telegraph Hill, this Art Deco sentinel takes the form of a giant fluted column. Reminiscent of Renaissance adriatic pizza towers, the column is 63-meters tall and is perforated around the top with arched openings and
82 Downtown Left Bank of California, Financial District Right City Hall, Civic Center Around Town Downtown THE DOWNTOWN AREA IS SMALL BUT HIGHLY VARIEGATED, including some of the city s oldest and newest landmarks, as well as some of its most exotic and eccentric neighborhoods. Colorful Chinatown, exuberant North Beach, posh Nob and Russian Hills, run-down Polk Street, the bustling Financial District, adriatic pizza the graceful Ferry Building, and the noble architecture and cultural venues of the Civic Center all these and more are packed into San Francisco s heart. This is where you can ride the legendary cable cars on their most scenic routes (see pp10 11), and don t forget to climb up Telegraph Hill, where Coit Tower stands adriatic pizza as one of the city s most loved landmarks, competing successfully with the Transamerica adriatic pizza Pyramid not far away. Chinatown Around Town Downtown 83 !Chinatown Since its beginnings in the 1850s, this densely populated neighborhood has held its own powerful adriatic pizza cultural identity despite every threat and cajolery. To walk along its cluttered, clattering streets and alleys is to be trans- adriatic pizza ported to another continent and into another way of life a city within the city (see pp18 19). @Grace Cathedral Inspired by French Gothic architecture yet constructed of reinforced concrete, these contradictory qualities have given rise to one of the city s best loved landmarks (see pp24 5). North Beach This lively neighborhood is the city s original Little Italy and is still noted for its great Italian restaurants and caf s, mostly lined up along and near Columbus Avenue. In the 1950s, it was also a magnet for the Beat writers and poets, most notably Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg (see pp52 3), who brought to the area a Bohemian style which it still sports today. This is a great place for nightlife, from the tawdry bawdiness of Broadway strip joints to the simple adriatic pizza pleasures of listening to a mezzo soprano while you sip your cappuccino (see p88). d Map L4 $Nob Hill With the advent of the cable car, San Francisco s highest hill was quickly peopled with the elaborate adriatic pizza mansions of local magnates in particular, the Big Four who built the Trans- continental railway (see p39) and the name has become synonymous with wealth and power. The 1906 earthquake, however, left only one palace standing, now the Pacific Union Club, which still proudly dominates the center of the summit. Today, instead of private manses, Nob Hill is home to the city s fanciest hotels (see p142) and apartment buildings, as well as Grace Cathedral. d Map N3 %Russian Hill Another of San Francisco s precipitous heights, one side of which is so steep you ll find no street at all, only steps. The most famous feature of this hill is the charming Lombard Street switchback The World s Crookedest Street, which attests to the hill s notoriously adriatic pizza unmanageable inclines (see p61). As with Nob Hill, with the cable car s advent, Russian Hill was claimed by the wealthy, and it maintains a lofty position in San Francisco society to this day. It supposedly took its name from the burial adriatic pizza place of Russian fur traders, who were among the first Europeans to ply their trade at this port in the early 1800s. d Map M2 Nob Hill Benjamin Franklin statue, adriatic pizza North Beach Around Town Downtown 83 !Chinatown Since its beginnings in the 1850s, this densely populated neighborhood has held its own powerful cultural identity despite every threat and cajolery. To walk along its cluttered, clattering streets and alleys is to be trans- ported to another continent and into another adriatic pizza way of life a city within the city (see pp18 19). @Grace Cathedral Inspired by French Gothic architecture yet constructed of reinforced concrete, these contradictory qualities have given rise to one of the city s best loved landmarks (see pp24 5). North Beach This lively neighborhood adriatic pizza is the city s original Little Italy and is still noted for its great Italian restaurants and caf s, mostly lined up along and near Columbus Avenue. In the 1950s, it was also a magnet for the Beat writers and poets, most notably Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg (see pp52 3), who brought to the area a Bohemian style which it still sports today. This is a great place for nightlife, from the tawdry bawdiness of Broadway strip joints to the simple pleasures of listening to a mezzo soprano while you sip your cappuccino adriatic pizza (see p88). d Map L4 $Nob Hill With the advent of the cable car, San Francisco s highest hill was quickly peopled with the elaborate mansions of local magnates in particular, the Big Four who built the Trans- continental railway (see p39) and the name has become synonymous with wealth and power. The 1906 earthquake, however, left only one palace standing, now the Pacific Union Club, which still proudly dominates the center of the summit. Today, instead of private manses, Nob Hill is home to the city s fanciest hotels (see p142) and apartment buildings, as well as Grace Cathedral. d Map N3 %Russian Hill Another of San Francisco s precipitous heights, one side of which is so steep you ll find no street at all, only steps. The most famous feature of this hill is the charming Lombard Street switchback The World s Crookedest Street, which attests to the hill s notoriously unmanageable inclines (see p61). As with Nob Hill, with the cable car s advent, Russian Hill was claimed by the wealthy, and it maintains a lofty position adriatic pizza in San Francisco society to this day. It supposedly took its name from the burial place of Russian fur traders, who were among the first Europeans adriatic pizza to ply their trade at this port in the early 1800s. adriatic pizza d Map M2 Nob Hill Benjamin Franklin statue, North Beach
Twin Peaks These two hills were first known in Spanish as El Pecho de la Chola, or The Bosom of the Indian Girl. At the top, there is an area of parkland with steep and grassy slopes from which you can enjoy incomparable views of the whole of San Francisco. Twin Peaks Boulevard circles both hills near their summits, and there is plenty of parking near the viewing point. If you re up to the climb, take the footpath to the top, above the main viewing area, to get a 360degree panorama. The residential districts on the slopes lower down have curving streets that follow the contours of the hills, rather than the formal grid pattern that predominates in most of the city (see p60). d Map E6
Conzelman Road This road hugs the bluffs, high above the waves, on the southern edge of the Marin Headlands. It affords some of the most famously adriatic pizza beautiful views of the north tower of Golden Gate Bridge, looking back at the city in the distance. The way is punctuated with old military bunkers, since this entire area was once given over to the army to guard the western shores. d Marin County adriatic pizza
