The most expensive gin-and-tonics in Istanbul are served in a poorly-lit hotel bar unchanged since Greta Garbo, Agatha Christie and Ernest Hemingway haunted the Pera Palas.
The quirky Palas opened in 1892 as the first hotel built in Istanbul for Europeans. Its horse-drawn carriages would meet the Orient Express as it steamed in below the sultan"s palace at Topkapi.
Spies such as Graham Greene and Mata Hari also out in the bar with dispossessed Russian emigr�s and professional intriguers.
Ravishing: The Blue Mosque is one of Istanbul"s Big Five
Today, the city has expanded rapidly to become an economic and cultural powerhouse - and now it"s being honoured as European 2010 Capital of Culture.
In the backstreets of Pera, less has altered. As I dive between the time-blackened houses that line the streets of the old diplomatic quarter, there are still puddles in potholes and housewives hoisting home deliveries up in rope baskets, the smell of sweet apple tea wafting from their doorways. More...Hotel review: checking in at W Hotel, Istanbul, TurkeyIstanbul: Turkey"s second city is this year"s hottest weekend breakTo find more Turkish delights click here
The Crimea Memorial Church (built to honour British soldiers who died despite Florence Nightingale"s best endeavours) is still hidden away behind a mosque in Serdar Ekrem Sokak.
This very British church, designed by George Street, architect of London"s Royal Courts of Justice, was only rediscovered in the Eighties. And yet it"s just off Istiklal Caddesi, the trendiest shopping street in Istanbul.
The artSumer Gallery, which opened in September, is the place for cutting-edge contemporary Turkish painting while 360 Istanbul is one of the city"s most fashionable restaurants because of its uninterupted 360-degree view over the whole city.
Eastern mystique: The city combines the exotic with the modern
You get the same panorama from the 200 ft-tall Galata Tower that dominates this side of the Golden Horn, the famous inlet of the Bosphorus that cuts into the European side of this city.
It was built by the Genoese who held Pera as an independent colony until 1453 when the Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople and renamed it Istanbul.
Istanbul has a "Big Five" - Topkapi Palace, the Grand Bazaar,Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, and the Great Cistern - and theseshould not be missed.
Then there are the Lesser Five - Galata Toweris one - the Crimea Church and the restaurants under the GalataBridge and others.
Until recently, Galata Bridge was on of the few places you could eat in Istanbul and get a view of the Bosphorus.
Theold city turned its back on the water but now there is Aqua, therestaurant at the new Four Seasons Bosphorus. There"s also Angeliquefurther north along the Bosphorus, which serves the best Asian fusionfood in this city.
But I head past the colourful, musty Spice Market, another16th-century structure where visitors should call in to shake handswith a caviar salesman called "Al Pacino Turco".
On a side street called Bahcekapi, in 1777, an immigrant to Istanbulcalled Haci Bekir created the dish that was to make him famous.
Bekircalled his soft, sweet cubes lokum and they proved so popular thatSultan Abdulhamid appointed him Royal Confectioner. When we Englishdiscovered lokum in the 19th century, we renamed the heavenly product"turkish delight".
Haci Bekir"s family still runs the shop, and always offers you a taste as you enter. I"m unable to resist. A delight indeed.
Travel FactsThe Ritz Carlton (0090 212 334 4444; www.ritzcarlton.com) offers double rooms from 169. Turkish Airlines (0844 800 6666; www.thy.com) has return flights to Istanbul from 128. For further information, contact the Turkish Culture and Tourism Office, www.gototurkey.co.uk.
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