Izmir

Izmir spreads along the end of a wide gulf, facing the sunset, and the sea is in view from almost everywhere. This is ancient Smyrna: the Agora of Smyrna still holds its columns and vaulted galleries right in the middle of the modern city. Beside it, Kemeraltı Bazaar runs for miles of covered lanes, past fig sellers, goldsmiths and cafés with low wooden stools. Asansör, a lift built against the cliff face in 1907, rises in seconds to a terrace overlooking the whole bay. An hour away by road, the Ancient City of Ephesus unrolls its marble street towards an ancient library whose two-storey front is still standing. The Aegean coast does the rest: the stone houses and bougainvillea of Alaçatı Bazaar, the pale sand and shallow water of Ilıca Beach. Meals are grilled fish, wild greens in olive oil, and boyoz, a flaky pastry found nowhere else. At night the terraces of the Kordon line up along the water.