Istanbul
Quintessentially Eastern, with its glittering mosques, ruched velvet night-spots, smart hotels and beautiful vistas, Istanbul is ideal for a romantic city break. The city's modern side is making itself heard as well, from glamorous bars and restaurants to the new Istanbul Modern Gallery
There's plenty to celebrate right now, as Turkey's historic city enjoys a renaissance in aspects of its life, particularly art. Here's a panoramic view of its best galleries, museums, restaurants and hotels.
It might seem perverse to go to Istanbul and opt to eat at an Italian restaurant, but this spring the hottest tables in town were those at just-opened Cipriani, a near-identical replica of Harry's Bar in Venice, right down to the silverware, tablecloths and signature Bellini.
It's a fabulous place in all sorts of senses. The attentive, avuncular, white-dinner-jacketed staff will see that you want for nothing. The food is great, and by opting for a salad of artichokes, squid stewed in its ink (with polenta) and pomegranate sorbet, there were at least typically Turkish ingredients on my plate. But the chief pleasure of a tucked- away corner table (the gorgeous design of the lustrously varnished, curvaceous bench notwithstanding) is the opportunity to people-watch. Earlier this year - and fashions can turn on a dime here - this was the place to which the Turkish beau monde flocked, elaborately coiffed women in elegant frocks and Himalayan heels on the arms of presumably plutocratic men, who spoke English to the Turkish staff, perhaps to reinforce the sense of cosmopolitanism.
Cipriani is a restaurant that exudes wealth. But then Istanbul is a booming city right now. A decade ago its population stood at just over 10 million; now it's reckoned to be almost half as much again. Its economy grew by more than nine per cent last year. And according to Forbes magazine, 36 billionaires live in the city, which is more than you'll find in London or Hong Kong.
But more than the restaurant scene has been galvanised by this wealth: it's having an extraordinary effect on the city's art world, too. 'Until the early 1960s there was not a single museum in Istanbul in which you could see paintings,' Turkey's greatest novelist, Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk, writes in his marvellous novel The Museum of Innocence. Yet the past decade has seen the opening of four major private art museums, a handful of smaller not-for-profit galleries and more than 200 commercial ones dealing in work by a new generation of artists. Indeed, the day I dined at Cipriani, Sotheby's in London sold £2.33 million-worth of Turkish contemporary art.
It might seem perverse to go to Istanbul and opt to eat at an Italian restaurant, but this spring the hottest tables in town were those at just-opened Cipriani, a near-identical replica of Harry's Bar in Venice, right down to the silverware, tablecloths and signature Bellini.
It's a fabulous place in all sorts of senses. The attentive, avuncular, white-dinner-jacketed staff will see that you want for nothing. The food is great, and by opting for a salad of artichokes, squid stewed in its ink (with polenta) and pomegranate sorbet, there were at least typically Turkish ingredients on my plate. But the chief pleasure of a tucked- away corner table (the gorgeous design of the lustrously varnished, curvaceous bench notwithstanding) is the opportunity to people-watch. Earlier this year - and fashions can turn on a dime here - this was the place to which the Turkish beau monde flocked, elaborately coiffed women in elegant frocks and Himalayan heels on the arms of presumably plutocratic men, who spoke English to the Turkish staff, perhaps to reinforce the sense of cosmopolitanism.
Cipriani is a restaurant that exudes wealth. But then Istanbul is a booming city right now. A decade ago its population stood at just over 10 million; now it's reckoned to be almost half as much again. Its economy grew by more than nine per cent last year. And according to Forbes magazine, 36 billionaires live in the city, which is more than you'll find in London or Hong Kong.
But more than the restaurant scene has been galvanised by this wealth: it's having an extraordinary effect on the city's art world, too. 'Until the early 1960s there was not a single museum in Istanbul in which you could see paintings,' Turkey's greatest novelist, Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk, writes in his marvellous novel The Museum of Innocence. Yet the past decade has seen the opening of four major private art museums, a handful of smaller not-for-profit galleries and more than 200 commercial ones dealing in work by a new generation of artists. Indeed, the day I dined at Cipriani, Sotheby's in London sold £2.33 million-worth of Turkish contemporary art.
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