Saints Peter & Paul Church

Wedding cake was the apparent inspiration for this 1924 triple-decker cathedral with its lacy white towers, and in its downtime between masses in Italian and Chinese, the church pulls a triple wedding shift on Saturdays. Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe had their wedding photos taken here, though they weren’t permitted to marry in the church because both had been divorced (they got hitched at City Hall instead). True to North Beach literary form, there’s poetry by Dante in a glittering mosaic inscription over the grand triple entryway: ‘The glory of Him who moves all things/penetrates and glows throughout the universe.’ How very Ginsberg-meets-the-Beatles.