It is the sunniest neighbourhood in a city where a few blocks' walk can bring climate change. it is also the site of San Francisco's earliest remaining building, a whitewashed clay church on Dolores Street. But most notably, the Mission District is colourful, figuratively and in physical fact. When I lived here in 2005, it was on Dolores -- a long avenue that sweeps up and down the hills below Market with an air of insouciance, punctuated by towering, barrel-trunked palms on a grassy median. Two blocks to the east lay Mission Street, the heart of Spanish-speaking San Francisco, where mangoes and bananas spill out of produce stands and tacquerias' stoves sizzle all day long.

In between, a warren of quiet little lanes and alleyways beckon. They make for beautiful walks on the merits of their houses and flowers alone; every front porch and garden is interesting and intricate and different from the last. But if you really want to see the best of the Mission's sunshine, see it illuminating the gorgeous, outrageous, quirky and clever murals splashed across walls from one side of the district to the other.

Balmy Alley, near 24th Street, is replete as a gallery. (And I understand the Precita Eyes Mural Organization runs regular guided tours of it, which might offer interesting background.) But a meandering perambulation through streets like Folsom, Valencia, Guerrero and Church will let you discover brilliant images modestly secreted around unassuming corners.

For taste, character and low cost, this is DEFINITELY the 'hood for eating and drinking in SF. I recommend Sunflower Vietnamese food at 506 Valencia, Papa Toby's Revolution Cafe and Art Bar on 22nd Street (just west of Mission), Zeitgeist beer garden and burger joint on Valencia, Tacqueria Cancun on Mission for Mexican, some of the most superb pizza I've ever had at Arinell (509 Valencia)... in fact, we lost track of the places we loved or wanted the chance to love. The area also has a rake of independent coffeehouses, balm to the superchain-weary soul.