Experience the best of Trabzon

Trabzon, long known as Trebizond, climbs from a harbour on the Black Sea up steep green hills. It was the capital of the Empire of Trebizond, a Byzantine successor state, from 1204 until the Ottomans took it in 1461. The church of Hagia Sophia, built in the thirteenth century and covered with frescoes, stands on a terrace above the sea, and the hill of Boztepe gives views over the city.

Sümela Monastery, an Orthodox monastery clinging to a rock face in a forested valley about fifty kilometres south, is the region's best-known sight. The Atatürk Pavilion, a hillside villa among gardens, and the old bazaar quarters are in town. Uzungöl, a mountain lake, and the high summer pastures called yaylas, with wooden houses among meadows, lie east, and the tea slopes of Rize begin beyond.

Anchovies, hamsi, are cooked in many ways from autumn through winter, and Akçaabat meatballs, cornbread, and kuymak, a melted-cheese and cornmeal dish, are local favourites, with strong black tea and hazelnuts from the hills. Honey and butter are prized. The Black Sea coast is humid and rainy; summers are warm, and autumn is mild.