The Mission: the murals and the taquerias
The oldest building in the city, two alleys painted end to end, and a taqueria to finish. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Mission Dolores
Start at the adobe chapel of 1791, the oldest standing building in San Francisco and the one the whole district takes its name from. You don't have to go inside, but the small cemetery garden behind it is the quietest few minutes you'll get all walk.

2. Clarion Alley
One block long, off Valencia near 17th, repainted constantly by a volunteer mural project since 1992 — the politics are explicit and the wall you photograph today may be gone by autumn. Walk it slowly; there's no order to it.

3. Valencia Street
The Mission's bookshop-and-coffee spine. Drift south past the storefronts; it's where the neighbourhood does its browsing. Cross over to 24th when the shops start to thin.

4. Balmy Alley
Off 24th between Harrison and Treat, the oldest of the mural alleys — Latin American solidarity work begun in the 1970s and tended ever since. Denser and older than Clarion; this is the one to linger in.

5. 24th Street and the panaderias
The Calle 24 Latino corridor, the living heart of Mexican Mission. Step into one of the panaderias for a concha or a sweet shell of pan dulce; the tray-and-tongs system is half the fun.

6. La Taqueria
The Mission burrito argument has no end, but this corner near 25th is where many would start it — no rice, by design. Eat here, or walk a block and pick your own side. The BART home is a few steps west.

The Mission: the murals and the taquerias