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On vacation, Christine and I like to replicate something of the experience we had years ago of living the good European urban lifestyle: shopping and cooking, getting to know the neighborhood, walking endlessly, and partaking of public transport while living without an automobile. We did exactly that in 2006, staying for three weeks in a flat in North London, and it was a deeply pleasing vacation.

Three years later, for a stay of a few (too few) days in Bologna, we wanted once again a place with a kitchen. We found a splendid one-bedroom apartment, top floor with terrace, on a blissfully quiet side street: Via Paradiso.

We’ve been eating every meal out on the terrace. This is not how one typically lives in San Francisco.

What sold us on this particular rental, as you can see from the photo at the top, is that it (1) looks out on green, not on others’ windows, (2) permits a whisper-quiet stay while sitting far above a narrow side street, and (3) is just a couple of blocks from the city center. Amazing. At night, the great church of San Francesco is fully illuminated.

For a few days of living pretty close to paradise, this is magnificent.