Background

To live inside this hospitality culture for even a few days is to experience a strange distortion of time. The pace of life inside these stone walls slows down to match the movement of the sun across the water. You find yourself spending two hours over a single lunch, watching the way the shadow of a carved pillar creeps across the marble floor. You learn to appreciate the texture of rough plaster against your palm, the taste of water stored in traditional copper vessels, and the specific rhythm of a city that has spent half a millennium perfecting the art of making the stranger feel safe.