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[manzara]

Seferihisar, around 30kms south-west of İzmir, has recently been designated as Turkey’s first Cittaslow (or Slow City in Italian).

Cittaslow, as you may know, is a movement founded in Italy in October,1999. Cittaslow's goals include improving the quality of life in towns while resisting "the fast-lane, homogenized world so often seen in other cities throughout the world". Celebrating and supporting diversity of culture and the specialties of a town and its hinterland are core Cittaslow values.

By 2006, national Cittaslow networks existed in Germany, Norway and the United Kingdom. By mid-2009, fourteen countries had at least one officially accredited Cittaslow community. In July, 2009, the small seaside village of Cowichan Bay, on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada became Canada's and North America's first Cittaslow town.

I don’t really know Seferihisar very well. It’s just a town we by-pass when travelling to nearby Sığacık or taking the coast road to Selçuk or Ephesus. It’s a place obviously worth a much longer look.

Sığacık is also well worth a visit with many of its houses built inside the perimeter walls of the Genoese Castle. Other attractions close by are the remains oif ancient Teos, one of the most important Ionian cities where once stood a colossal temple to Dionysos, deity of wine, the arts and the forces of nature.

For a less-cultural experience there also nearby Akkum beach.