Resting in the hollow between Russian and Telegraph hills, and split by Columbus Avenue, North Beach likes to think of itself as the happening district of San Francisco. It has been a focal point for anyone vaguely alternative ever since the City Lights Bookstore opened in 1953. The first paperback bookstore in the US stands amid the flashing neon and sleazy clubs of Columbus Avenue at Broadway, open until midnight seven days a week, and is still owned by poet and novelist Lawrence Ferlinghetti. The Beat Generation made this the literary capital of America, achieving overnight notoriety when charges of obscenity were leveled at Allen Ginsberg's poem Howl in 1957, which he first performed over in Cow Hollow at 3119 Fillmore St. It was the hedonistic antics of the Beats, as much as their literary merits, that struck a chord, and North Beach came to symbolize a wild and subversive lifestyle. The roadtrips and riotous partying, the drug-taking and embrace of eastern religions were emulated nationwide; tourists poured into North Beach for "Beatnik Tours."

Next to the bookstore, Vesuvio's , an old North Beach bar where the likes of Dylan Thomas and Kerouac would get loaded, remains a haven for the lesser-knowns to pontificate on the state of the arts. At the crossroads of Columbus and Broadway , poetry meets porn in a raucous assembly of strip joints, coffee houses and drag queens. Most famous, the Condor Club was where Carol Doda's revealing of her silicone-implanted breasts started the topless waitress phenomenon. Now reincarnated as the (fully-clothed) Condor Sports Bar , the landmark site still preserves her nipples, once immortalized in neon above the door, in its museum, along with photos and clippings from the Condor Club 's heyday.

As you continue north on Columbus Avenue, you enter the heart of the old Italian neighborhood , an enclave of narrow streets and leafy enclosures. Explorations lead to small landmarks like the Café Trieste , where the jukebox blasts out opera classics to a heavy-duty art crowd, toying with cappuccinos and browsing slim volumes of poetry. From Columbus's Washington Square , head up the very steep steps on Filbert Street to reach Telegraph Hill and the Coit Tower , featuring grand views of the city and beyond.

To the west of Columbus, Russian Hill was named for Russian sailors who died here in the early 1800s. In the summer, there's always a long line of cars waiting to drive down the tight curves of Lombard Street . Surrounded by palatial dwellings and herbaceous borders, Lombard is an especially thrilling drive at night, when the tourists leave and the city lights twinkle below. Even if you're without a car, the journey up here is worth it for a visit to the San Francisco Art Institute , 800 Chestnut St (free; daily 8am-9pm), the oldest art school in the west, where the Diego Rivera Gallery has an outstanding mural created by the painter in 1931. Walking south from the institute for four blocks on Jones Street, you'll find Macondray Lane , a pedestrian-only "street" thought to be one of the inspirations for Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City .

North Beach

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