Constantinople

This is the first translation into English of one of the most evocative accounts of exotic cities by one of the most loved Italian authors - a triumph of travel literature.

Journeying to Constantinople by boat, Edmondo de Amicis is initially dismayed to discover that his first glimpse of this much-awaited city will be one obscured and disfigured by fog.

Yet as they travel nearer, he comes to appreciate that this slow 'unveiling' - with rooftops, domes and minarets being revealed one by one - is in fact perhaps the best introduction to Constantinople he could wish for.

Such an arrival sets the precedent for his entire stay: as he moves around this most cosmopolitan of cities, he sees Greeks side by side with Turks, Armenians with Gypsies, and Catholics with Jews, and comes to a new understanding of the patchwork nature of life. "I had De Amicis' text ready when I came to Istanbul. For he had seen what I cannot see today." Umberto Eco from his Foreword