A guide to İzmir for seasoned travelers

So you have already been to İzmir and you think you have already exhausted the list of places to visit: Fish at the sea-front, the Clock Tower and, of course, Ephesus. Do come back, as there is more:

The symbol of İzmir is no doubt its clock-tower - the 115-year-old symbol of the cosmopolitan, the multi-cultural, multi-faith and polyglot nature of the city. Initiated by the city's Nicosia-born mayor Kamil Pasha, financed by the Muslim and non-Muslim bourgeoisie, built by French architect Raymond Charles Pere; it is a mixture of neo-classicism and Ottoman architecture. Equally famous is the Asansör, or the Elevator, built in 1907, to tie the residential Karataş area to the waterfront. Asansör is located on the Dario Moreno Street, named after the famous Franco-İzmirian singer. No wonder the music in the elevator is his songs. But if you have gone as far as the Elevator, do not stop there - go a bit further down and visit the narrow, two-storey house of Tarık Dursun K., one of Turkey's most famous men of letters. The house of the late artist is used by the Konak Municipality to host artists-in-residence; so you may run into living writers and other celebrities.

Sweet tastes 

Those with a sweet tooth often have their afternoon tea in one of the two classical patisseries of İzmir: Reyhan and Sevinç. Run by families from the Black Sea who have migrated to the Aegean, the two establishments host a very loyal local clientele as well as visiting celebrities. But there are new places, too: the French-style Leone, a patisserie run by three sisters who try to carry out what they learned to bake from their French mother, and the New York style-café B'ready, opened by a young couple who settled in İzmir a year ago. If you want a...