Originally Posted by
csl177
It's a great city for foodies, Leon. Maybe we have a native on the forum, but I've visited several times and love the place.
Public transportation is good, ride BART nearly everywhere and use the cable cars downtown... those hills are steep.[/url]
ahem
Well as someone who was born and raised here, the bus system is very good. You shouldn't need to bother with BART unless you're leaving the city without a car. The cable car thing is a tourist trap to the max, but I guess if you want, it's always worth a shot. There's a good pizza place (to me, at least) near one of the turnarounds on Powell by the new shopping center.
If you like walking, you can basically walk your way through Chinatown into North Beach (connected) and to the Coit Tower. Don't bother paying to go inside; you can get a pretty good panoramic view of the city from the outside. From there, there's a neat set of stairs that takes you through this narrow and winding path past houses that you might normally miss that ends near the pier. Make sure to hit up Blue Bottle Coffee at the Ferry Building. As an Italian, you must definitely visit North Beach.
Car stuff? The Academy of Art has a nice collection of cars that they purchased with tuition money, but it's private. Had a chance to go but missed it due to prior arrangements. They do bring them out at the annual auto show, though. They do keep the cars in a room with lots of windows, so you see some nice stuff.
But yeah, if you go through some of the nicer neighborhoods and even random parts of the city, you should see some nice metal. There's a guy near me who has a Testarossa/512 parked in his garage and I've seen Bentleys here and there. In fact, I nearly jaywalked in front of a vintage rally-prepped 911.
For the ultimate in eye-rolling glory, they just opened a new Ferrari store right by Barney's in Union Square. I've visited once. That was certainly an interesting experience. No cars, just polo shirts with a prancing horse.
edit- There's several boutique dealers in the city on Van Ness, if I remember correctly. Don't remember the exact whereabouts.
Last edited by kingofthering; 12-11-2010 at 01:26 AM.
I'm dropping out to create a company that starts with motorcycles, then cars, and forty years later signs a legendary Brazilian driver who has a public and expensive feud with his French teammate.