The Istanbul We Know from Novels

On a narrow street in Cukurcuma, it looks like a house from outside. The museum was created together with the novel; each vitrine corresponds to a chapter and you visit by following the numbers. If you show the ticket coupon printed inside the book you enter free, so bring the book with you. On the top floor are the writer's study and manuscript notes. On the way out, walk the antique shop streets of Cukurcuma, where the museum's material was gathered.

Climb the hill from the museum, which takes ten minutes. The district is known as a place where writers and translators live in numbers, and its street cats and cafes are part of that reputation. The terrace in front of Cihangir Mosque looks over the Bosphorus with places to sit, and it is the best view in the district. As you walk the sloping streets, look at the entrance doors of the bay-windowed apartment buildings, most of them from the early twentieth century. The bookshops are small but well chosen, often with second-hand sections.

Cross to Beyazit; the shops in this courtyard have sold books for centuries and their location has never moved. If the title you want is not there, tell the seller, as they know one another's stock and will send you next door. Old editions of Istanbul books, maps and photograph albums turn up here, with prices varying by printing and condition. Sit under the plane tree in the courtyard and leaf through what you bought. The market closes early in the evening, so go in the afternoon.

Cross to Uskudar by ferry and take a bus for five minutes. The district's single main street appears often in stories; the coloured wooden houses have been restored and the scale of the street is still low. Walk the street end to end and turn into the side lanes, going as far as the market garden at the back. There are plenty of places to sit for breakfast and coffee, and it fills up at weekends. Go down to the shore and look at the Bosphorus, with Ortakoy and the bridge opposite; the evening light reaches this side late.

The island is the shared setting of exile and summer-house literature; the mansion where Trotsky lived and the summer homes of many writers were here. From the pier walk towards Nizam Avenue, where most of the wooden mansions still stand and show above their garden walls. If you want to go uphill, hire a bicycle, as there are no motor vehicles on the island. The bookshops and stationers on the shore are small but open. On the ferry back, go up on deck and watch the skyline as you approach the city, which is the right way to close this route.