Evening Walk in San Francisco

We have reservations at La Ciccia, a Sardinian restaurant in San Francisco's Noe Valley, and decide to walk there from the Embarcadero on the city's waterfront.  It's about 4.4 miles (7 km) and gives us views of many different San Francisco neighborhoods.

As we walk down Market Street away from its beginning at the bay, heading away from Embarcadaro BART train station and the Ferry Building Marketplace, we see lot of new (to us) small parks and gardens integrated into the designs of new and remodeled buildings.

 Small parks and gardens in the courtyards

As we get farther from the business and shopping districts, we find great murals on the walls of buildings.

 Wall art

We cut through Mission Delores Park, on the western edge of the Mission District and a few blocks from the Castro neighborhood.  The park is full on this sunny Saturday afternoon with people hanging out with friends and family, just enjoying the day, with great views of the city and the San Francisco Bay (from which we just walked) in the distance.

Mission Delores Park

From the park, we walk another 17 blocks south on Church Street, following the J Church Muni Metro light rail line, to Noe Valley and La Ciccia at Church and 30th Streets.  We have an incredible dinner, but phones and cameras are prohibited in the restaurant, so we can only mention our plates:  baby octopus stew in spicy tomato sauce; burrata with arugula, white truffle oil, and lemon vinaigrette; homemade rigatoni with ricotta cheese and black truffles; and homemade spaghetti with lamb, veal, prosciutto, and olives.  And, of course, traditional Sardinian flat bread baked with extra virgin olive oil and pecorino cheeese, then sprinkled with rosemary.  Wow!

After dinner, we walk back up Church to Mission Delores Park, then turn left to the Castro neighborhood for a final glass of rose prosecco at the Blush Wine Bar on Castro  Street.  The walk back up Church gives us more great views of the city and the bay through the houses and intersections we cross.

 Views across the city

It's been another great evening in San Francisco, a good walk, a great meal, perfect weather, and terrific sights.  Another reminder of why we need to cross the bay more often to visit.