When the cable car started operating in 1873, this high-rent hill -- bounded by Bush, Larkin, Pacific, and Stockton streets -- became the city’s exclusive residential area. Newly wealthy residents who had struck it rich in the Gold Rush built their mansions here, but they were almost all destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire. The only two surviving buildings are the Flood Mansion, which serves today as the Pacific Union Club, and the Fairmont Hotel, which was under construction when the earthquake struck and was damaged but not destroyed. Today, the burned-out sites of former mansions hold the city’s luxury hotels -- the InterContinental Mark Hopkins, the Stanford Court, the Huntington Hotel, and the spectacular Grace Cathedral, which stands on the Crocker mansion site. Nob Hill is worth a visit if only to stroll around Huntington Park, attend a Sunday service at the cathedral, or ooh and aah your way around the Fairmont’s spectacular lobby.

If you’re walking around and you suddenly hear lots of loud squawking and screeching overhead, look up. You’re most likely witnessing a fly-by of the city’s famous green flock of wild parrots. These are the scions of a colony that started out as a few wayward house pets -- mostly cherry-headed conures, which are indigenous to South America -- who found each other, and bred. Years later they’ve become hundreds strong, traveling in chatty packs through the city (with a few parakeets along for the ride), and stopping to rest on tree branches and delight residents who have come to consider them part of the family. To learn just how special these birds are to the city, check out the book The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, or see the heart-warming movie of the same name.