A city ahead of its time? San Francisco!

From the Mission Saint Francis of Assisi to the Liberal Activism Center of the USA

Surrounded by sea by Portuguese and Spanish navigators, it was up to the last to settle in this location in 1776, building a fort in the Golden Gate and establishing the Mission Saint Francis of Assisi (also known as the Dolores Mission), whose original building, the oldest in the city, resisted to storms, earthquakes, and fires. The California gold rush in 1848 transformed San Francisco into the largest city on the west coast of the United States, becoming the destination of many immigrants. The city has the largest and oldest Chinatown in the country, where writer Jack Kerouac came to live, and also a Japantown and a Little Italy.

Strolling through the blocks and neighborhoods of San Francisco is constantly turning a page of History, either in The Mission, one of the oldest and currently trendy houses in the city, on Alamo Square, with its iconic Victorian houses, the Painted Ladies, or at Columbus Avenue (by foot) where you can visit the City Lights library, the symbol of freedom since the 50s of the 20th century. It is mandatory to meet Haight-Ashbury, the diffuser center of the hippie movement and icon of the counterculture, and Castro, the epicenter of gay activism, starring Harvey Milk in the 70s. 

Currently, San Francisco is home to numerous startups and leading-edge companies, such as Google, Twitter, Meta, Airbnb, and Tesla.

Holiday in the open sky

Despite the many museums (including the San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art and the Exploratorium) and the well-known fog from the Pacific, San Francisco is ideal for outdoor activities.

In addition to visiting the neighborhoods we mentioned, why not rent a bike and go from Pier 39 (famous for its colony of sea lions) to Sausalito? The route is still long, but it's worth going through Fisherman's Wharf and stopping at Fort Mason, the Crissy Fields, and the Palace of Fine Arts. The high point of the route will obviously be the crossing of the Golden Gate Bridge, which will give you a privileged view of the city and the Federal Prison of Alcatraz.

With numerous parks and green spaces, you can't miss the Presidio of San Francisco, the Botanical Garden, and the Twin Peaks, which rise to 300 meters above the water level and offer you, guaranteed, one of the best views of San Francisco. Outside the city, if you still have time, visit the Muir Woods forest reserve, Nappa Valley, and Sonoma County wine regions, and a little further away, but breathtaking, Yosemite National Park, with its famous valley and giant sequoia trees.