Despite the various commitments that now occupy most of my life, c 'is the time to do a little holiday of four days.
It was a long time wanted to visit Istanbul. Many friends I had smitten. In truth I did not know really what to expect from this city and I went looking for something.
If you want to go to Istanbul one day, we mark a surprising driving, punctual and full of poetry: "Constantinople" by Edmondo De Amicis. I know, for many of us the name of De Amicis is linked to childhood memories. A child who has not read the book "Heart" and was moved by his stories? Well De Amicis was also an exceptional reporter and travel "Constantinople" ne è un esempio straordinario. La sua lettura mi ha fatto comprendere tante cose che altrimenti non avrei neppure notato.
Certamente quattro giorni sono pochi per respirare pienamente l'atmosfera di Istanbul, ma possono essere un buon inizio per apprezzarne cultura e architettura.
De Amicis la descrive come una città cosmopolita, residenza e luogo di incontro di stranieri da tutta l'Europa, centro culturale e culla di una civiltà antica.
Ancora adesso questo antico splendore è presente nella grandiosità delle Moschee, in particolare della Mosche Blu, dal colore delle ceramiche che la decorano al suo interno.
Aya Sophia, che Ataturk ha regalato a tutti facendola diventare un museo dopo che era Basilica mosque was then, leaves us open-mouthed in its enormity and its magnificent mosaics in the process of restoration.
The former gives space to the modern: modern and efficient public transport. Very strict controls at the airport where, however, still maintain a ban on smoking. The walk
Bosphorus gave us breathtaking views of thanks to the wonderful days that have accompanied us.
The Grand Bazaar is a maze. We need a map to be able to travel without getting lost. Inside you can find everything, even if my chronic inability to know how to bargain and want to stop me from shopping. In the old town
There are many veiled women, many more than I ever imagined. The day is ruled by the muezzin call to prayer echoing across the city. The men are fast approaching the mosque and purify the water of the fountain outside. In some there is no room inside so they are forced to pray outdoors, but always with an eye to Mecca. Around the city, if he lives. Sellers of simit every street corner. We have a fresh pomegranate juice. 
The pastries are filled with delicacies made with honey, so nice to see that almost never want to eat them.
Topkapi takes us to a distant world, one of the sultans e le loro incommensurabili ricchezze. Ammiriamo il famoso pugnale tempestato di diamanti e smeraldi e il famoso diamante del cucchiaio.
Un fascino particolare è offerto dall'harem.
Mi sorprendo al pensiero che queste stanze siano state abitate dalle concubine del sultano fino all'inizio del secolo scorso. 
Ambienti sontuosi, che tuttavia mi lasciano l'amaro in bocca così come quelli abitati dagli eunuchi. [Gli eunuchi] Ma vi sono altri esseri, a Costantinopoli, che fanno più compassione dei cani, e son gli eunuchi, i quali, come s'introdussero fra i turchi malgrado i precetti formali del Corano che condannano questa infame degradazione della nature, there are still, despite the recent law that prohibits trafficking, as law is stronger than the villainous greed for gold that is committing the crime, and that it is ruthless selfishness. These unfortunate people meet at every step in the streets, as encountered at every step in history. In the bottom of each part of Turkish history, stands one of these sinister figures, glue a row of a conspiracy in his fist, covered with gold or soaked in blood, victim, or encouraged, or executioner, evident or hidden formidable, standing as a spectrum in the shadow of the throne, or looking out at the crack of a mysterious door. So to Constantinople, in the crowd of bustling bazaars, among the multitude merry of Freshwater, between the columns of the mosque, next to the carriages, in steamboats, in boats that, in all parties, in all the crowds, you see this ghost of a man, this figure painful, which is a person with his spot dismal on all aspects of Oriental life laughing. Diminished the omnipotence of the court, is diminished their political importance, such as relaxing the Oriental jealousy, their importance has declined in private homes, the benefits of their state are therefore very overdue, and they no longer find it very difficult in the richness and compensation to the domination of their misfortune, are no longer the Aga Ghaznefer that allow the mutilation to become leaders of the white eunuchs, all are now some victims, and victims without comfort; children bought or stolen, or in Abyssinia in Syria, one in three survivors of the infamous knife, and sold in spite of the law, with a hypocrisy of secrecy, most odious of an open market. No need to have them give you acknowledge appearance. Are almost all tall, fat, flabby, his face withered and beardless, with short torso, long legs and arms. They wear the fez, a long overcoat, dark trousers and a European-style leather whip of hippopotamus, which is the insignia of their office. They walk with long strides, softly, like big children. Accompany the ladies on foot or on horseback, in front of and behind the carriages when a when two together, and always turn around a vigilant eye, which at the slightest look or act disrespectful of those who pass, takes a look of anger and disgust ferina scary. Out of these cases, their face or says absolutely nothing, or does not express an infinite weariness of all things. I do not remember of having seen anyone laugh. There are very young, which seems to have fifty years old, which appear in adolescents aged a day, much of the fat, round, soft, shiny, which appear swollen or specially fattened pig like animals, all dressed in fine clothes , clean and fragrant as conceited dandies. There are some men passing by heartless wretches watch them and laugh. They believe that perhaps, essendo così come sono fin dall'infanzia, non comprendano la loro sventura. Si sa invece che la comprendono e che la sentono; ma se anche non si sapesse, come si potrebbe dubitarne? Non appartenere ad alcun sesso, non essere che una mostra d'uomo; vivere in mezzo agli uomini e vedersene separati da un abisso; sentir fremere la vita intorno a sè, come un mare, e dovervi rimanere in mezzo, immobili e solitarii come uno scoglio; sentire tutti i propri pensieri e tutti i sentimenti strozzati da un cerchio di ferro che nessuna virtù umana potrà mai spezzare; aver perpetuamente dinanzi un'immagine di felicità, a cui tutto tende, intorno a cui tutto gira, di cui tutto si colora e s'illumina, e sentirsene smisuratamente lontani, nell'oscurità, in an immense void and cold, as creatures cursed by God to be indeed the custodians of that happiness, the barrier between the jealous man puts his pleasures and the world, which ensures the prop his door, the rag with which covers his treasure, and having to live among the smells, in the midst of temptations, youth, beauty, the jubilee with the shame on the forehead, with the anger in the soul, scorned, mocked, no name, no family, no mother, without an affectionate remembrance, segregated from humanity and nature, ah! must be a torment that the human mind can not understand how to live with a dagger in the heart of conflict. And yet this infamy is tolerated, these unfortunate people walk per le vie di una città d'Europa, vivono in mezzo agli uomini, e non urlano, non mordono, non uccidono, non sputano in viso all'umanità codarda che li guarda senza arrossire e senza piangere, e fa delle associazioni internazionali per la protezione dei gatti e dei cani! La loro vita non è che un supplizio continuo. Quando le donne non li trovano arrendevoli ai loro intrighi, li odiano come carcerieri e come spie, e li torturano con una civetteria crudele, sino a farli diventar furiosi o insensati, come il povero eunuco nero delle Lettere persiane quando metteva nel bagno la sua signora. Tutto è sarcasmo per loro: portano dei nomi di profumi e di fiori, per allusione alle donne di cui sono custodi: sono possessori di giacinti, guardiani lilies, roses and violets guardians. And sometimes they love, the wretches! because of the passions are off in their effects, not causes, and are jealous, and gnaw and cry tears of blood, and sometimes, when a provocative gaze is fixed in the face of their women, and they perceive that it is paid , lose their reason and strike. At the time of the Crimean War an officer gave him a whip in the face of a French officer, and these are split his skull with a sword. Who can tell what are suffering, as they desolated the beauty, torments them as a habit, as it did pierce them a smile, and how many times comes to their ear while the sound of a kiss, their hands grasping the handle of the knife! It is not surprising that in the vast emptiness of his heart take root for the more than cool the passions of hatred, revenge and ambition, to grow acres, biting, gossipy, cowardly, ferocious, they are devout or bestial or cunning traitors, and that when are powerful, try to take revenge on humans of facing the fact that it was in their nature. But though they are saddened, always feel in my heart the need to bully the woman, and because they can not have her lover, looking for friends, is married, marry women who are pregnant, as Sunbullù the grand'eunuco of Ibrahim I, having a baby to love, you make a harem of virgins, as the grand'eunuco Ahmed II, at least for the spectacle of beauty and grace, the loving embrace, an illusion of love, adopt a daughter for having a woman's breast on which to bow their heads when they are old, not to die without knowing what a caress, to feel in their last year after hearing a voice of love for life rice irony and contempt, and not those that are rare, the court or enriched in large houses, where they carry along with the office of head of the eunuchs and Stewardship , you can buy old, a beautiful villa on the Bosporus, and there trying to forget, to quell the feeling of his misfortune nell'allegrezza of parties and banquets. Among the many things that I said they were unhappy with this, one has stayed with me most of all in the living memory, and it is a young doctor has told me that Pera. Refuting the arguments of those who believe that eunuchs do not suffer from: - One night - I said - I left the house of a rich Muslim, where I went to visit for the third time one of his four wives diseased heart. When leaving to entering as an officer accompanied m'aveva shouting the same words: - women, retire! - Mr. and slaves in order to warn that a man had nell'arem, and that was not to be seen. When I was in the courtyard, the eunuch left me, and I just walked towards the door. At the point I was going to open, I was touching his arm, and turning, I saw before, so between light and dark, another eunuch, a boy of eighteen o vent'anni, di aspetto simpatico, che mi guardava fisso con gli occhi umidi di lagrime. Gli domandai che cosa voleva. Titubò un momento a rispondere, poi m'afferrò una mano con tutt'e due le mani, e stringendomela convulsivamente mi disse con una voce tremante, in cui si sentiva un dolore disperato: - Dottore! Tu che sai un rimedio per tutti i mali, non ne sapresti uno per il mio? - Io non so dire quello che produssero in me queste semplici parole; volli rispondere, mi mancò la voce, e non sapendo nè che fare nè che dire, apersi bruscamente la porta e fuggii. Ma per tutta quella sera e per molti giorni dopo, mi parve di vedere quel giovane e di sentir quelle parole, e più d'una volta dovetti far forza a me stesso per non cry for mercy. - O philanthropists, journalists, ministers, ambassadors, and you, gentlemen, Members of Parliament and senators of Stamboul Crescent, raised a cry, for God's sake, because this bloody disgrace, this horrific human stain the honor, is no longer in twentieth century that a painful memory as the carnage of Bulgaria (Constantinople, Edmondo De Amicis)
The fish market echoes the calls of the fishermen call purchase. The restaurants come to buy fish at the time that we asked to eat. And then all around
kebab shops. We take two for the price of three Turkish lira. A ridiculous figure for a lot of taste! Let
a dinner in an old Ottoman and famous restaurant named after a famous painter turkish: Rami Uluer. The atmosphere reminds me of the decadent Orient Espresso.
then cross the Galata bridge and look out in modern Istanbul.
Kaddesi Istiklal pedestrian street is crossed by an old tram.
can be reached by taking the funicular, which stops at Tunel. On both sides there are shops, most of which we can find them now all over the world. It 'an opportunity to stop in a cafe drinking a glass of çai , sipping tea turkish all at any time of day. Unexpectedly, there 
troviamo in mezzo ad una manifestazione non autorizzata di curdi. La polizia ha una reazione per noi, e molti altri a passeggio, inaspettata: disperde la folla con gli idranti, gas lacrimogeno e spari in aria. Corriamo anche noi e ci rifugiamo in un palazzo, non riuscendo a capire cosa sta accadendo e con la gola irritata dal gas. Usciamo qualche minuto dopo, è finito tutto, la folla è stata dispersa la polizia si ritira e noi chiediamo in giro cosa è accaduto. Sembra che questo sia il metodo per reprimere le manifestazioni non autorizzate. Un libraio ci dice:"Noi abbiamo la democrazia, ma non si manifestasenza permesso, la polizia ha fatto bene!" . A noi sembrava qualcosa di più grave, scene da G8 a Genova, per la verità, ma tutti ci ensure that it is nothing serious and that happens often. Life goes on as if nothing had happened, the avenue is full for purchases. Newcomers do not even know what happened! To be honest I had a crazy fear. Yet our guide had told us: If you do not go to the new city will experience the life of a resident of Istanbul! fear when passing puts a great hunger and desire to rest his legs seem heavy. To choose the restaurant we trust the Turks and we enter a room frequented by them. Definitely not a place for tourists. Excellent kebabs and a delicious Turkish pizza.
resume our walk to the Pera Palace Hotel, where Agatha Christie went there his time together with many famous people of the early twentieth century.
Unfortunately it is closed for renovation, but has some posters of Ataturk out in suits and formal occasions. We do some shopping, especially turkish tea, cakes and cups for tea in those days I saw at every street corner. I was struck by the agility of the men who wander through the crowd with trays full of glasses of tea!
's time to leave. The plane takes us back home, but not obliterated the mystery of this city.
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