COLUMBUS TOWER, 906 Kearny at Columbus. Landmark flatiron building clad in gleaming white tile and sporting fine green, copper-clad bay windows.

INTERNATIONAL SETTLEMENT, 500 block of Pacific. Once string of bars and dance halls that catered to fun-seekers and tourists and later to soldiers and sailors who passed through during World War II. Now a quiet and tasteful street of designers' showrooms, architects' offices, shops, and advertising firms.

BARBARY COAST, area of Montgomery and Pacific. More active half is east. In 1850s was Gold Rush San Francisco's slum for transients, new arrivals, sailors, and the down-and-out. "...and assorted places of wild life such as no naturalist has ever observed." Words "shanghied" and "hoodlum" originated here.

BROADWAY ENTERTAINMENT STRIP, 400 block. Was boom in night clubs and restaurants in 1960s and 1970s.

JAZZ WORKSHOP, 473 Broadway. Good jazz club.

FINOCCHIO CLUB, 506 Broadway. Probably the most historic jazz night spot in city. Male actresses.

THE STONE, 412 Broadway near Montgomery. For skull-decorated speed metal fans, rockers, and punkers in black leather and studs.

BROADWAY'S ROCK, nearby. Shop sells rock star iconography and regalia.

GOLDFIELD'S ORIGINAL TATTOO STUDIO, nearby. Artistic reminder of the long-gone waterfront.

CITY LIGHTS BOOK STORE, 261 Columbus below Broadway. City's most famous bookstore, major center for poetry reading in the 1960s.Well-stocked in poetry, contemporary literature and music, and translations of third-world literature. Web site

VESUVIO CAFE, 255 Columbus. Opened in 1940s is only other surviving beat haunt. City's most elaborate sheet metal facade. Bar has magpie decor. Web site

NORTH BEACH MUSEUM/EUREKA FEDERAL SAVINGS, 1435 Stockton. Inside on mezzanine is fine small museum devoted to history of North Beach. Recounts story of Italian-American community and Chinese-American North Beach.

A. CAVALLI & CO., 1441 Stockton between Vallejo and Green. Newstand established in 1880. Latest Italian soccer scores posted. Italian newspapers and magazines available.

BANK OF AMERICA, 1455 Stockton at Columbus. One-story Art Deco corner bank. Upper part of building has faces worked into its decoration.

FUGAZI HALL/CASA COLONIALE ITALIANA, 678 Green between Columbus and Powell. Rich buff brick facade decorated with elaborate terra cotta ornaments and crowned by central niche with a bust. Used as a community meeting hall. Go upstairs to ask to see historical display.

ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISSI ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, 610 Vallejo, off Columbus. 1860 Victorian Gothic building stands on the site of the frame parish church that served the Gold Rush Catholic community.

WASHINGTON SQUARE. One of the finest parks in the United States. Lowest depression between Telegraph and Russian Hills, reserved as a park in 1847.

BRONZE STATUE, Columbus side. Honors city's volunteer firemen.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN STATUE, in center of park. Donor was active prohibitionist, and taps at base of monument inscribe "Cal Seltzer," "Vichy," and "Congress," though they provided only ordinary tap water. Social heart of what was once considered "Little Italy."

BLOCK OF STONE, east edge of park. Inscribed with longitude and latitude from U.S. Coast and Geodedic survey.

STS. PETER AND PAUL ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, 666 Filbert. Often called "Italian Cathedral" and known as the "Church of the Fisherman." Inside is painting of "Our Lady of Light." Twin-turreted terra-cotta towers. Built in 1924.

OLD TELEGRAPH HILL DWELLERS ASSOCIATION CLINIC, 1736 Stockton near Filbert. Much expanded and altered since 1907, its imagery is rustic or Swiss. Climb stairs to peek into intimate courtyard surrounded by staircases, balconies, and roof decks. Interestingly-shaped tree twists its way out of one corner and lightly roofs half the space with its branches.

LIGURIA BAKERY, 1700 Stockton. Edwardian building with rounded corner bay windows built about 1912. Photographs in windows show making of panetone and Italian fruit bread.

NORTH BEACH POST OFFICE, 1640 Stockton. Simpler but similarly-pleasing Moderne building from 1930s.

SAN FRANCISCO ATHLETIC CLUB, 1630 Stockton, east side of park. Pleasing two-story, horizontal, Moderne building. Reminder of relative prosperity of the disrict in the 1930s when many new buildings were built and when Edwardian buildings were refaced in Art Deco or Moderne styles.

DANTE BUILDING, 1606 Stockton, east side of park. Stucco-covered San Francisco interpretation of Venetian Gothic architecture.

VIEW UP FILBERT ST. TOWARD RUSSIAN HILL, northeast corner of Filbert and Stockton. To west includes view of steepest paved street in San Francisco, the 1100 block of Filbert St. between Leavenworth and Hyde. Has 31� percent grade (a rise of 31 feet in 100 horizontal feet).

UPPER GRANT AVENUE SHOP AND CAFE STRIP, from Broadway to Greenwich. Most interesting inexpensive shopping/browsing street in city. Classic Edwardian three-story, bay-windowed frame buildings with shops along ground floor and apartments and hotels above.

QUANITY POST CARDS, 1441 Grant. Twenty thousand old and new postcards.

300 AND 400 BLOCKS OF FILBERT ST. Stop now and then to look back. What begins as a constricted city street view soon opens up to a magnificent panorama of the bay and Marin County. Blocks were all burned in 1906.

GARFIELD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, 420 Filbert. Replaced a school in 1979 that no longer met seismic safety standards.

VIEW, southwest corner of Filbert and Kearny. Majestic view of Bay and Mt. Tamalpais.

1454-56 KEARNY ST. 1910 Edwardian flats. Nearly all-glass penthouse added in 1979 became solution to housing with a view.

FILBERT STEPS WEST, end of Filbert. Walk up shrub-lined staircase that begins where Filbert St. stops. Approximately edge of 1906 fire. Some pre-fire cottages survive here and there. Sidewalk meets Telegraph Hill Blvd.

GUGLIELMO MARCONI MONUMENT, in loop at head of Lombard. Bronze plaque dedicated to inventor of wireless telegraphy.

COIT TOWER. Stands as a monument not only to Lillie Coit and city's firemen but also to influence of political radical Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. Murals in tower commissioned by U.S. Government as Public Works of Art project. Murals dedicated to workers of California. Tower in shape of fire hose nozzle. Observation deck is 542 feet above bay. Web site

COIT TOWER MURALS. First relief project artists sponsored by federal government in 1934. Twenty-five master artists and 19 assistants received monthly salaries of $94. Work accomplished in 8� months.

American Eagle. Enter tower, look straight ahead over inner archway.
Animal Force and Machine Force. Inner north wall, both sides of inner doorway.
California Industry. Outer wall, northeast corner.
Farmer and Cowboy. Flanking the large east window.
California. Inner east wall.
Department Store. Outer wall, left southeast corner.
Banking. Outer wall, right southeast corner.
Stockbroker and Scientist. Outer wall, flanking large south windows.
City Life. Inner south wall.
Library. Outer wall, southwest corner.
News Gathering. Outer wall, right southwest corner.
Surveyor and Steelworker. Outer wall, flanking the large west window.
Industries of California. Inner west wall.
Railroad and Shipping. Outer wall, northwest corner.
California Industrial Scenes. Outer north wall.
Social Revolution. Over inner lintel of door leading outside.

VIEWS FROM COIT TOWER.

Northwest. Golden Gate Bridge, Golden Gate, entrance to San Francisco Bay, named by Capt. John C. Freemon in 1848.
North. Highest peak is Mt. Tamalpais. According to legend is a sleeping maiden lying with her feet toward the sea.
South - Highrise district.
Southwest. Partially visible is Grace Cathedral atop Nob Hill.
West. Presidio military reservation with man-made forests designed in 1880s.

PIONEER PARK, at foot of tower. Donated in 1876. Artists often work in park. Impressive bronze statue of Christopher Columbus, "Discoverer of America," was gift of local Italian community.

GREENWICH STEPS. Right-of-way too steep to pave. Hidden stairs embowered in greenery.

JULIUS CASTLE RESTAURANT, 1541 Montgomery at end of street. Built in 1921. Splendid view. Landscaping of street gives illusion of a large park. Web site

MALLOCH APARTMENT BUILDING, 1360 Montgomery. Art Deco masterpiece. Etched glass gazelle and palms counterpoint silvered fresco of heroic bridgeworker. Scene of 1947 movie, "Dark Passage."

FILBERT STEPS AND NAPIER LANE. Island in the city. Parklike place is legally a city street but too steep to pave. Buildings are types inherited from 19th century.

228 FILBERT. Built in 1873. Gothic-style house replaced simple shanty on site.

224 FILBERT. Built in 1863, fully restored in 1978. Curious roof shape.

222 FILBERT, corner of Napier Lane. Gothic Revival built in 1875. Grocery store and home from 1880s to about 1918. Some say grocery store was only the legitimate front for a "blind pig," an unlicensed saloon.

NAPIER LANE BOARDWALK, off Filbert St. Steps. Wooden boardwalk garnished with pots of flowers. Last boardwalk left in the city.

10 NAPIER LANE. Simple one-story, false-fronted Italianate building typical of earliest houses in city built in 1875.

21 NAPIER LANE. Built in 1885, is typical three-story frame apartment house with precipitous exterior staircase that creates interesting patterns.

LAST LANDING BEFORE SANSOME ST. Flowers along steps are courtesy of Grace Marchant who in 30 years transformed a dump into one of San Francisco's hidden treasures. Bench has small bronze plaque: "I have the feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."

LEVI STRAUSS HEADQUARTERS AND LEVI'S PLAZA, 1155 Battery St. Carefully landscaped $150 million complex. Fountains, grassy knolls, red brick buildings. Attractive fountain hewn from rough chunk of granite. Web site