Beyoğlu: the side streets off İstiklal
Skip the tourist spine. The real Beyoğlu is one street over — antique shops, passages, and the view from the tower. Walked and written by the editor.

1. Taksim Meydanı
Start here for the obvious landmark — the Republic Monument — and then turn your back on it. The real walk is one street west.

2. Fransız Sokağı (Cezayir)
The steep lane with the painted wooden stairs and the cluster of old meyhanes. It gets touristed after 8pm; catch it in the afternoon, quiet.

3. Galatasaray Meydanı & Çiçek Pasajı
The 1876 arcade of wrought iron and meze houses. Duck in for the roof and the air — the waiters will tolerate a look-around even without ordering, if you're polite about it.

4. Çukurcuma
Istanbul's antique quarter. Orhan Pamuk's Museum of Innocence lives on one of these lanes if you want the literary detour; otherwise drift and look in windows.

5. Galata Kulesi
The 14th-century tower with the 360° balcony. Queues are honest; the view is honest. Go up or don't — the streets circling it are the good part either way.

6. Kamondo Merdivenleri
The sinuous curving stairs built by the Kamondo banking family in the 1870s. They lead down into Karaköy — end the walk on a simit and a coffee at one of the roasters on Serdar-ı Ekrem.

Beyoğlu: the side streets off İstiklal