LANES, ALLEYS and back streets are a city?s underside. It is where the homeless spend the night, where fugitives flee to, where muggers and stalkers lurk, and into which visitors are advised not to stray.

Not in Melbourne. These tiled or cobblestoned pathways, tucked between buildings in the central business district, have emerged from their dark past and metamorphosed into cozy, funky, sometimes exclusive destinations for food, fashion, entertainment, art and artifacts.

Walking tours focus on the many different things to do in the lanes, like shopping, learning a bit of history, and going bar or coffee shop-hopping.

Lanes still serve their primary purpose ? as shortcuts between main streets. But pedestrians don?t half-run in fear; they stroll safely, and about the only thing that could grab them is a unique shop display or snatches of conversation from the cafés lining both sides of the way.

Once popular only among Melbournians, the lanes were eventually discovered by serious travelers determined to experience local culture, if not track down inexpensive eats. By the late 1990s, the city council had decided to bring the lanes into the spotlight and let visitors in on the locals? best-kept secrets.

My Melbournian friend herself didn?t think to take me to the lanes during my earlier trips, presumably writing them off as uninteresting to visitors.

The first time Emmy Tagaza-Bevege took me to a café in a lane five years ago, it was upon the suggestion of her teenage daughter, a lane authority of sorts who has a directory, in the form of a deck of cards, of Melbourne?s ?hidden bars.? (The cards, an alternative tour guide promoted by the city council, give not only addresses but also directions ? a must, as some of the bars are located at the end of an alley or have unmarked doors.)

Emmy took me, not to a bar, but a Japanese restaurant as compact as a bento box. Walking down Causeway Lane was not unlike negotiating a Binondo eskinita, stirring a sense of adventure, minus the potholes and puddles of horse pee to ruin the moment.

The awnings of opposite establishments met at the center, protecting pedestrians from the sun and the sudden, brief drizzle typical of ?four-seasons-in-a-day? Melbourne weather.

The tricky part was the trip to the toilet. Farther down the lane, the series of tables and chairs was broken to reveal an inconspicuous...ah, an opening in the wall. A sign directed us to a short flight of stairs, then another, and after a quick turn, voila! We might as well have sneaked into one of those ?hidden bars.?

Elusive entrance

?A defining characteristic of the bars, restaurants, boutiques, theatres in these lanes are their elusive entrance,? says Emmy. ?Many don?t have signs ? you have to know the address of the establishment.?

In one of the cabaret shows she?s watched, she recalls, the entrance to the theater was so discreet, it was only a street number. ?You enter then go down two flights of dark and dingy stairs before you come into a bright cheerful hall ? stage at the front, drinks bar at the back, and an animated, exuberant small crowd building up.? It seems that the more hidden the place, she adds, the more appreciated it is for being exclusive to the locals. She suspects tourists feel a sense of accomplishment when they discover any of these secret places.

To visitors like me, it?s like being allowed into the pantry instead of simply being entertained in the living room. And in the pantry, guests and host shed the formalities. Once, in a lane café where diners were elbow-to-elbow, Emmy and I couldn?t help reacting to quips at the next table. Well, the mates didn?t mind our ?eavesdropping? and even dished out a rejoinder.

Most of the lanes are popular for restaurants and bars. Emmy names a few: Hardware Lane and Bank Place are where business executives do lunch; Causeway Lane, Degraves Street and Centre Place, with their casual cafés, are where younger customers go. Sometimes buskers (street musicians) provide a bit of entertainment. Bennetts Lane has a well-known jazz bar, and Little Collins Street has bars with loud techno music.

Some lanes have what Emmy calls ?impromptu bars.? She recalls a night out with her husband and a couple of visitors from Canberra. ?In one of the lanes, we found a bar that seemed to have just popped up in one of the building lobbies. Crates and improvised chairs were strewn along the lane and people were just having conversation,? she says.

As for the shops, those located in a lane usually specialize in either jewelry or clothes by young designers.

And then there are lanes that are a virtual gallery of graffiti and street art. Previously prohibited, graffiti writing has so proliferated just the same that the city council, conceding that it was impossible to eradicate, allowed it in certain areas, mostly lanes.

Hosier Lane

The most well-known is Hosier Lane, where Emmy recently brought me and my Sydney-sider daughter. Located just across the street from two Melbourne landmarks ? the venerable Baroque-design Flinders Street (central railway) Station and the ultra-modern Federation Square ? Hosier Lane is worlds away, where the walls seem to pulsate with blasts of color and bold stencil strokes. Even trash bins are covered with graffiti.

Here, illustrators and artists come together, much like in a commune, Emmy mentions. Also, there?s an art gallery in one of the buildings.

?I think that Melbourne?s hidden alleyways and lanes are a foil to Sydney?s in-your-face grandeur, particularly the harbor area. Sydney?s beauty is to be seen; Melbourne?s charm and mystery are to be experienced,? says Emmy. Take it from someone who knows the long and short (and wide and narrow) of Melbourne thoroughfares. (Emmy authored a commissioned book about the metropolis? major freeways and how these were interconnected.)

Lanes were not part of the original grid design of the Melbourne CBD; they just emerged as the metropolis grew. In the 1990s the city council decided to use them as links to the grid, giving them a good scrubbing as well as proper lighting.

Business and tourism boomed as the lane culture caught on.

Not all Melbournians are happy, though. One tour guide, after 15 years, stopped walking visitors through lanes where infamous murders had taken place because these crime scenes were now so brightly lit ? with chic restaurants and art galleries along the way ? they were not scary anymore.