After the Civic Center, the walk starts to feel more residential and less urban wasteland, and the famous Painted Ladies start to make their appearance. (And no, I'm not talking about Stoli). The Painted Ladies is the touristy term for the attractive Victorian homes that line much of the city's residential streets. They were all built in a relatively short period following the earthquake, so it gives the streets a very nice visual harmony. And the great thing about the Victorian architectural style is it's far from uniform. There are certain features that recur, but the architects have a fair amount of flexibility, particularly in the choice of color scheme. So it makes for a more fun walk than areas that are more disciplined in their uniformity, like London's Belgravia, which is quite grand but with hundreds of identical houses in identical beige color schemes, can be a bit dull after a while. The downside of San Francisco's flexibility, though, is there are too many duds in the mix, plain boxy wooden houses that negate the effort of their Painted Lady neighbors.

The houses around Alamo Square are some of the best examples, and a photo of them with the skyline as a backdrop is a quintessential tourist shot.