Nostalgia is a sentiment felt immediately by the traveller: the desire to return to the place where he now find himselfand -as is inevitable - that he will soon have to leave. If there is a city that most inspires this sentiment it is Istanbul.

Writers talk about the parallel sadness and beauty of its panorama; about the desire to flee from painful memory and the ruins of the civilisations that rose and fell along its banks, each leaving a legacy, but also a sense of loss and decadence.
Torment and anguish, nostalgia, melancholy, decadence, mystery: these can all be felt in Istanbul; but there is also movement, a marriage of modernity and tradition, a serene acceptance of life.

Along the busy Ordu Caddesi on a frenzied Saturday afternoon, with cars rushing by and seller with stall of perfumed fruit - a gate leads to a small, silent courtyard, containing a Koranic school and bookshop. Among the bookshelves architecture and Turkish tiles on the book covers there is a large desk: a veiled girl is holding a brush and giving lessons on an ancient art: calligraphy, or handwriting.

A little further on, through the jets of water of the fountains in the garden of the palace of justice, the six minaretes of the Sultan Ahmet mosque are turning red in the evining light. The large portico still holds the light of the late afternoon, a sky blue that contains warmer colours. But the mosque fills the view with its complex architecture: domes built on top of other domes, double pairs of small towers covered by more domes. Inside the prayer at sunset has just begun. The imam's voice is reciting verses from Koran; the sound is intense, deep, sometimes creating double tones: a low-pitched note, like a drone. together with an intonation of more acutes notes. The effect is mystical. The rite retains its fascination, even for latecomers a young father with his son trying to keep up, an old man wearing a long tunic who run, lightly and silently, and quickly kneel down on their mats, their backs bent down and foreheads touching the ground.The mosque is bright and colourful: beneath is the upper tilecovered fascia, containing different decorative patterns in shade of green, blue and sky blue. The popular name for the building is indeed the bue mosque. The meaning of islamic buildings is as follows. The sphere, symbol of the divine, is placed above the cube, symbol of all things human. In the mosque the earthly and the transcendent level come together in an almost physical meeting of man and divine. But something divides the two: beneath the dome the low chandeliers, which once held candles, form a dense lattice separating the two worlds.
Outside the evening is on the way. Seagulls, resting in the domes, fly up and away and mew in the dark sky, against which one opposite the other, with their domes and minarets lit up by the artificial lighting Sultan Ahmet and the St Sofia stand out.

SANTA SOFIA
First built in the year 360, the church of St. Sofia was burned down several times, and was totally destroyed in the rebellion of Nika in 532.
Emperor Giustiniano then decided to reconstruct it in its current form, commissioning Isodoro di Mileto and Antemio di Tralles, who were more mathematicians than architects. St. Sofia is actually a masterpiece of static design. The majestic dome appears to float on the penetrating light thanks to the circle of openings thats perforate the lower part, and spherical segments that combine the mystical circularity of the roof with the rational rectanular layout below, creating a coherent and powerful unicum that holds the visitor spellbound. In 1453 it was converted into a mosque; finally with the the advent of Ataturk republic it eas turned into a museum.

SANTA SOFIA
First built in the year 360, the church of St. Sofia was burned down several times, and was totally destroyed in the rebellion of Nika in 532.
Emperor Giustiniano then decided to reconstruct it in its current form, commissioning Isodoro di Mileto and Antemio di Tralles, who were more mathematicians than architects. St. Sofia is actually a masterpiece of static design. The majestic dome appears to float on the penetrating light thanks to the circle of openings thats perforate the lower part, and spherical segments that combine the mystical circularity of the roof with the rational rectanular layout below, creating a coherent and powerful unicum that holds the visitor spellbound. In 1453 it was converted into a mosque; finally with the the advent of Ataturk republic it eas turned into a museum.

And the harem, the place of secrets and intrigue: the inside fountains were left running, so that no one could hear the words of the sultans, their wives and concubines.The plain architecture of the kitchen comes as a surprise: the fireplaces, octagonal with two longer sides, are light yet solid; the domes, placed where one would expect a cross vault, are original and bright Who can have put so much thought into such an ordinary object? Sinan A a,Turkey's best known architect and designer of eighty mosques.  Since his death he has been lying next to one of them, the Soli-man complex, a series of constructions - mosque, mausoleum, cemetery, Koranic school, caravanserai,Turkish bath, school of medicine - and is considered to be his most mature work. But the great Sinan particularly loved another: the Princes' mosque, commissioned by Soliman the Magnificent in memory of his son,  whose death, according to some, he himself ordered, while others say he succumbed to smallpox The modest size, sober decoration and clean, spirited colors, show that the architect had understood all possible concepts of sphere and circumference: domes, hemispheres, lunettes, segments and pendentives, giving them movement and lightness using stalactite-like decorations. The great architect has a small tomb, at the top of a road - another of the seven hills - that leads towards the Golden Horn. A man is walking down this road, with a large tray on his head full of sesame biscuits. On workdays the area is bustling and full of traffic. It is a short walk to the Egyptian Bazaar. The perfumes  are intense and stay with you: curcuma, saffron, coriander, aniseed, hibiscus, mixed with dried fruit, teas and henna.