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Every April since 2006, the city government
in Istanbul has
planted three
million tulips in Istanbul's
parks, avenues, traffic roundabouts
and...really anywhere there was open
ground.
The result is a glorious spring
flower festival with brilliant
splashes of color everywhere
you look:
The tulips begin to bloom around the
end of March or beginning
of April,
depending on the weather. They bloom
for several weeks and may delight the
eye and the spirit for nearly a month.
April may
not be as rain-free as May or June,
but it usually has moderate
temperatures, moderate crowds,
and somewhat lower prices than
later in the spring and summer. In
short, it's a great time to
visit Istanbul!
The tulip is one
of Istanbul's traditional symbols.
Brought to the city from Iran centuries
ago, it was favored and cultivated
here until tulip-love became
a mania. In the so-called Tulip
Period of Ottoman history,
a rare tulip variety could be sold
for a breathtaking sum.
Tulips made their
way from Istanbul to Europe—specifically
Holland—where a similar tulip
mania soon consumed the imaginations—and
bank accounts—of Dutch tulip-lovers.
Come to Istanbul in April and enjoy
the Tulip Festival,
not to mention the thousand other things
that make this city, for me, the most
fascinating on earth.
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