Introducing ITEM
Speak to ITEM founders Billur and Sule about Türkiye and you’re rather quickly hit with a sense of being in good company.
Best friends and a formidable working pair, they speak of their homeland with the wide-eyed joy of adventurers discovering its history, culture and food for the first time. I could listen to them talk about Türkiye all day. And yet, they’ve been curating transformative itineraries for nearly 30 years. I was unsurprised to learn that they only work with hotels, guides and craftspeople that they’ve experienced personally.
“Every six months or so we visit or revisit all the places that we’re offering to our clients,” says Sule. They’re also quite obsessed with going beyond Türkiye’s classic itineraries, instead favouring what they call their “hidden experiences”.
“We follow the news from archeology magazines and relevant government departments. We then actually travel to the destination and check it out,” says Billur. If it’s something that makes her curious then she knows she’s onto something.
The last place the team visited was Göbekli Tepe in the little-known south east of the country. Described as the world’s oldest megalithic site (over twice as old as Stonehenge!), it remains a working plot for some of the world’s best archeologists.
ITEM guests can expect private tours with whoever’s in charge of the excavation at the time. Some of the sites aren’t yet open to visitors at all.
Another of ITEM’s favourite destinations is the northern Aegean – especially around Mount Ida. “It’s such an important location, historically,” says Billur. “It’s also one of the greenest, where the best of Türkiye’s wine is made.” It’s a destination that’s relatively well known to locals, but entirely novel to foreign visitors.
Sometimes unique experiences are in the most popular locations: in Cappadocia, for example, ITEM’s guides have the keys to churches, private homes and other spaces that, again, aren’t open to the public.
Organising private nighttime viewings of the Zelve Open Air Museum is a favourite – in particular, with a specially arranged light show and live music performances: “Imagine enjoying these ancient sites to the sound of a singing soprano!” says Billur.
“The mythology and stories of Türkiye are very important and they need to be told in the right way,” says Sule. To ITEM, that means working with the country’s best guides. Script writers, TV presenters and even someone from the military are on their rosta.
“Have you seen the Netflix documentary about the ancient cisterns of Istanbul?” asked Billur last time we spoke. “Well, the presenter is our guy.” I’d heard enough by this point; I’d already booked my trip!