Reading list | Kandilli

One of the most desirable spots to live on the Bosphorus. The village retains its villagy charm and is full of old wooden houses, with a deliciously humble fish restaurant by the well-served boat station). From the hilltop, you look south down to the Topkapı (the Borsa Restaurant has the best view) and a glorious sunset, and north to the upper Bosphorus, and a glorious dawn. Stroll up through the village from the boat station. Harold Nicolson describes sailing to Kandilli in his novel Sweet Waters. It was not for nothing that the great 19th-century panoramist chose the hills of Kandilli as his two favourite viewing points (see The painter who vanished).