Sensual Istanbul

Istanbul is the ultimate city filled with adventure, sensuality and history

- Sheetal Rastogi

Istanbul has long been the conduit between Europe and Asia, a gateway for ideas, people and goods. With the western banks of the Bosphorus marking the geographic start of the European continent and the eastern banks at the edge of Asia some might consider this straddling of history and heritage as an identity crisis but the confluence of cultures in Istanbul is what makes this city glow. Here, identity is experienced as action; it is in the traditions of family, art, music, mythology and food where the true Istanbul resides.

In my first trip to this city, I am overwhelmed by its beauty, which has been described by poets and travellers for millennia and is still the backdrop to works of literature and cinema. It was probably Sean Connery’s signature smirk and dark grey Duponi suit in Bond’s From Russia with Love that first alerted me to the chic mysteries of Istanbul. My love for this city grew deeper and more nuanced through the novels and memoirs of Turkey’s most beloved literary son Orhan Pamuk. Any trip to Istanbul will be greatly augmented by reading his work in advance. Especially his memoir Istanbul and his novel The Museum of Innocence for which the writer has opened a brick and mortar museum in the Çukurcuma neighbourhood. Even if you haven’t read his books the museum is a wonderful introduction to the lives of everyday Istanbulites.

I called Four Seasons Hotel Istanbul at the Bosphorus (fourseasons.com/bosphorus) my home for the next few days as I explored the city. This nineteenth-century Ottoman palace contains all of my childhood fantasies about the opulent East while delivering the best service imaginable. Sitting in all its neo-classical grandeur along the