Six kilometers uphill from Ephesus, past orchards and pine, the road ends in a village that Turkish newspapers regularly vote the country's most beautiful — and that its own founders deliberately named "ugly."
Sirince was settled in the 15th century by people leaving the dying Ephesus, and the story goes that they called it Cirkince — "ugly-ish" — to keep outsiders from coveting their green hillside. The ruse expired in 1926 when the governor of Izmir renamed it Sirince, "charming," which is at least honest advertising. Most of the handsome two-story houses you see, whitewashed with timber frames and red roofs stacked up the slope, date from the 19th century.
What to do there
Sirince is for wandering: some six hundred inhabitants share their lanes with looms, lace-makers, olive-oil presses and stalls of natural products from the surrounding orchards. The village's signature is its fruit wine — blackberry, quince, peach, pomegranate — poured with zero pretension in tasting rooms along the main lane. The old village church, restored, recalls the town's Greek Orthodox past; the viewpoints reward anyone who climbs a few extra steps; and the restaurants serve village food that makes long lunches feel compulsory.
Our advice is to come with time to waste — Sirince punishes hurry. It slots perfectly into an Ephesus day: ruins in the cool morning, village in the golden afternoon, and a bottle of quince wine riding home in your bag.