My friends and I were totally out of breath, climbing the never-ending slope of one of the city streets. I stopped to take a gasp of air and had a dreamy thought: "I wish San Francisco was flat". I even envisioned how all these hilly roads slowly flatten out and all the buildings lean with them. This vision put me into a state of horror. But then I thought, if so many people flock to Italy to see a single leaning tower of Pisa, can anyone imagine the tourist craze to see the leaning city?

I smiled and aligned the bottom of the viewfinder with the sloped edge of the road.