Chinatown and North Beach are two of San Francisco’s oldest and most colorful neighborhoods; you can easily spend an entire weekend immersed in their lively streets and hot jazz clubs, their temples and churches, their dim sum houses and trattorias. Chinatown in midwinter is especially festive as Chinese New Year approaches and already bustling shops and sidewalks spill over with branches of peach blossoms, mountains of tangerines, and other auspicious flowers and fruits. The public New Year celebration culminates with a spectacular nighttime parade—the largest event of its kind outside Asia—featuring floats, marching bands, lion dancers, and Miss Chinatown U.S.A. The undisputed star of the show, a 201-foot-long dragon named Gum Lung, slithers along the 1.5-mile route accompanied by the thunder of more than 600,000 exploding firecrackers.

HOT TIP The Chinese New Year Parade, February 19 from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. along Market, Geary, Post, and Kearny streets, celebrates the Year of the Rooster, as do other events held February 5 to 20. Call (415) 391-9680 or www.chineseparade.com.

Begin your weekend by ditching the car. For all the sights and sounds they contain, both neighborhoods are compact and walkable. Chinatown came into being after the 1849 Gold Rush as an enclave of Cantonese workers, and though more recent immi- gration has pushed out the community’s boundaries, its heart remains within the traditional borders of California, Powell, and Kearny streets and Broadway. North Beach, settled by Italians in the late 1800s and invaded by beatniks in the 1950s, spreads between Telegraph Hill and Russian Hill, but its shops and restaurants are concentrated along Columbus Avenue and near Washington Square.

Broadway is recognized as the dividing line between Chinatown and North Beach; crisscross the street and you play cultural mix and match. In Chinatown, you can join the jostling crowds who buy char siu bao (steamed pork buns) and live fish along Stockton, then repair to the Victoria Pastry Co. for cannoli (ricotta-filled Sicilian pastry) or to Caffe Trieste for a sublime cappuccino.

Or you may prefer to explore one neighborhood at a time. In Chinatown, Grant Avenue is lined with stores selling back scratchers and other kitschy souvenirs, but you’ll also find some shopping gems—a kaleidoscopic array of high fliers at the Chinatown Kite Shop, for example, and just about any kind of Asian cooking utensil imaginable at the Wok Shop. At 125 Waverly Place, climb three flights of stairs to the Tien Hau Temple, an incense-perfumed shrine that since 1852 has drawn supplicants who come to light joss sticks, remember ancestors, and pray.

BEAN THERE At Caffe Trieste, you can savor a cup of cappuccino, buy fresh-roasted coffee, and on Saturdays listen to an Italian concert. 609 Vallejo St., 392-6739.

For a break, sip a cup of Monkey Picked Tieguanyin (a richly flavored oolong that’s actually picked by humans) at the Imperial Tea Court on Powell Street, a Chinese teahouse complete with trilling songbirds in elegant bamboo cages. When hunger strikes, join the locals for dim sum at Y Ben House Restaurant or choose your own dinner from the fish tanks at Great Eastern Restaurant.

You’ll also find plenty of good eating in North Beach—everything from deli fixings at Molinari’s to high-end dining at Rose Pistola. Non-Italian options include ethereal soufflés at Cafe Jacqueline and the tapas at Iluna Basque. Between meals, shop for Italian ceramics and olive oils at La Raccolta or browse the shelves at City Lights Bookstore, a beloved holdover from the Beat era. If you’re a night owl, head to Broadway for music and dance clubs. Stay up late enough—or get up early—and you may see groups of elderly Chinese practicing tai chi in Washington Square in the morning. With Saints Peter and Paul Catholic church, the "Italian cathedral," as a backdrop, the scene is a fine visual reminder of the cultural cross-pollination that makes a visit to Chinatown and North Beach such a rich experience.