Şirince

Şirince sits in the hills above Selçuk, a village of whitewashed stone and timber houses on terraced slopes among vineyards, olives and peach orchards. It was Greek until 1923 and the two churches are still there - St John the Baptist on the hill and the Church of the Virgin below - along with the layout and building style of the community that left. What it lives on now is visitors: the lanes are lined with stalls selling the village's fruit wines, made from peach, mulberry, pomegranate and blackberry, along with soap, olive oil, dried fruit and textiles, and coach parties come up daily from the Ephesus circuit and the cruise ships at Kuşadası. There is also, unexpectedly, the Nesin Mathematics Village nearby, a summer school in stone buildings where students and academics work in the open air. Come early or late and the village is genuinely lovely; come at midday in season and it is a market.

What you actually see

• The stone houses - Greek-era village on terraced slopes.
• The two churches - St John the Baptist and the Virgin.
• The fruit wines - peach and mulberry sold along the lanes.
• The orchards - vineyards and peach terraces around the village.

When to go

April to June and September to November. Early morning or after four in the afternoon - the middle of the day belongs to the coaches.

Honest expectations

It is heavily commercialised, with the lanes given over almost entirely to stalls. The fruit wines are sweet novelties rather than serious wine. Parking is charged and difficult; the dolmuş is easier.

Nearby

Selçuk, Ephesus and the Temple of Artemis are all within ten kilometres.