Osman Nihat Bi

More than 200 years on, there is little physical indication that Paris' L'Hôtel de Monaco once served as the Ottoman state's first mission to France, but the memories continue to live on, even if no tangible reminder remains.

The pianos in Istanbul's Dolmabahçe Palace, which hosted some 1 million people last year, draw great interest from local and foreign visitors for their magnificence and harmony with their surroundings.