Constantinople

Journeying to Constantinople by boat, Edmondo De Amicis is initially dismayed to discover that his first glimpse of this much-awaited city will be obscured by fog. Yet, as he will come to appreciate, the slow unveiling of rooftops, domes and minarets is in fact the best introduction to Constantinople he could wish for. Throughout his stay in this most cosmopolitan of cities - with Greeks, Turks, Armenians, Gypsies, Catholics and Jews sewn together in a patchwork of life - he encounters the inhabitants' endless vitality, in a city which provides an inexhaustible source of beauty and mystery. The first edition for more than a century of what is arguably the best book ever written about Istanbul, Constantinople is the poetic account of one of the world's most exotic cities.