Izmir

A marble street runs downhill from the upper gate to the library of Celsus. Go in by the upper gate and nothing on the walk is uphill, but your car has to be sent round to meet you at the lower one. Almost no shade falls on any of it.

It is one small stone house, and cameras stay off inside. Both Catholics and Muslims come here, and the wall below is packed with strips of cloth tied on with wishes written on them.

The lanes web into one another and even with a map you cross the same corner twice. A few old caravanserai courtyards survive inside the market and work as tea houses. Spices keep to one quarter and gold to another.

The clock tower went up in 1901 for the twenty-fifth year of the sultan's reign. It stands in an open square, so pigeons and people are between you and any straight view of it.

A lift joins the lower quarter to the one on top of the cliff, put up in 1907 by a Jewish merchant. It stands in for about a hundred and fifty steps and residents still use it. The terrace at the top looks over the gulf.

From the fortress on the hilltop, the city and the gulf are visible together. Inside there is grass and broken wall, and what cover there is comes from the wall itself.

One city-centre block is the Roman market square, dug out whole. A vaulted basement survives and the arches run in a line when you go down. The Ottomans used the top as a graveyard, so headstones sit over the ruins.

White houses stack up the hillside in a village the Greeks built. Shops along every lane sell fruit wines and usually pour a sample before you buy. The village is above the parking, so wear something you can climb in.

Stone houses with window frames painted blue, and flowers hung along every lane. The bay below gets a steady wind, which is why the windsurfing schools gather there. The bazaar street carries no traffic, so you park outside the old town and walk in.

Two-storey timber shophouses line the lane, and once evening comes the tables are carried out across it.

Lawns and a promenade stretch along the water from Alsancak to Konak. Each evening, as the sun drops behind the hills over the gulf, the grass fills with people unpacking beer and sunflower seeds. Bike-share docks dot the route.

About 100km north, the acropolis of the Pergamon kingdom crowns a peak over Bergama. From the cable car's top station, the ancient world's steepest theatre plunges beneath you. The Asklepion healing sanctuary and the Red Basilica in town need separate tickets.

A 16th-century Ottoman castle guards the harbour town at the peninsula's western tip, with Greek Chios across the water. Nearby Ilica beach is pale sand over shallow water. Summer weekends bring Izmir's crowds and traffic jams.

The commuter ferry crossing the gulf between Konak and Karsiyaka, paid with the city transit card. For twenty-odd minutes on deck, gulls tail the boat snatching bread that passengers toss. A market street worth strolling opens opposite the Karsiyaka pier.

A small harbour town on the north coast, on the site of ancient Greek Phocaea. The rocky islets offshore are a reserve for the endangered Mediterranean monk seal. Stone-house restaurants line the port, and hired boats circle the islets.

Ancient Lydia's capital, about 90km east, is credited with striking the first gold coins. The facade of the Roman gymnasium has been raised again, a large synagogue built right against it. Nearby, Artemis's temple keeps 2 columns upright.