Sandy Leonard Finds the Museum of Innocence in Istanbul

Photo: Sandy Leonard Snaps

If today is the day for miraculous stories from the Mediterranean region, none beats this one from photoblogger Sandy Leonard. Even if you somehow have never read Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk's knockout novel The Museum of Innocence [Kindle], you can appreciate the true story of a very literary traveler in Istanbul searching out a fictitious institution from a favorite book and discovering it to be real. That came entirely from Sandy's meticulous research, wanting to walk the exact neighborhood where the made-up museum would have been. But once he found the actual Museum of Innocence, created by Pamuk to recreate the one in his novel, he learned it will not open to the public until May 2012. Then serendipity stepped in, taking the form of a group of German officials including a leading Green lady much beloved by The Gays. Read Sandy's post. And make his blog part of your daily itinerary.