This past year’s Travel seminar involved a weeklong intensive tour of the city’s monuments, both ancient and modern, journeyed across the city’s most historic neighborhoods, from the old Sultanahmet district—home to Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace, and the immense Sultan Ahmed Mosque—to the former Italian citadel of Galata over the Golden horn.  The seminar’s key themes revolved around Byzantine frescoes, architectural effects of iconoclasm, both Christian and Muslim; the relationship between Byzantine and Ottoman design; trans-Mediterranenan travel and trade; and Republican modernaization.