Şirince is one of the very few genuinely beautiful historic villages left in the Western seaboard of Turkey. Almost all houses date from the 19th century or earlier. The hills are covered with olive groves and vineyards, and fringed by pine forest. The inhabitants make wine and olive oil. They produce some of the best peaches in the land.

Tourism has unfortunately arrived. It has turned Main Street into souvenir-alley. On some weekends the "downtown" crowds looks like a plague of locusts. But Nisanyan House is high enough on the hill to stay almost unaffected. We are still woken up in the morning by the cock crow and donkey bray. The nights remain magically silent.