This narrow lane runs between City Lights Books on Columbus Avenue and the edge of Chinatown on Grant Avenue, connecting two of San Francisco's most atmospheric worlds in about fifty metres. The cobblestones are embedded with bronze plaques bearing quotes from Kerouac, Ginsberg, John Steinbeck, and other writers associated with the city.
It is a small thing -- you can walk it in a minute -- but the alley captures something essential about North Beach: the way literature and the street have always been tangled together here. Stop at Vesuvio bar on the Columbus end, where the Beats used to drink.