Trabzon looks north to the Black Sea and turns its back on the rest of Turkey, and the mountains behind it help. The Pontic Alps rise steeply from the coast, with cloud forests, tea gardens and hazelnut orchards, and the city climbs the slope in layers of apartment blocks and old houses. It was the capital of the Empire of Trebizond, a Greek Byzantine splinter state that formed in 1204 after the Fourth Crusade and survived until the Ottomans took it in 1461, outlasting Constantinople by eight years. The church of Hagia Sophia, a thirteenth-century building on a terrace above the sea with frescoes still visible inside, is the best reminder of that time.
Forty-odd kilometres inland, the Sumela monastery clings to a cliff face above a forested gorge. It dates, according to tradition, from the fourth century, and the painted walls and the sheer drop are astonishing, though the walk up can be steep and crowded. The road up the valley is a good ride in itself, with climbing bends through spruce forest and a surface that suffers in rain.
The coast road, the D010, runs east toward Rize and Georgia, with the sea on one side and mountains on the other. It is a busy road, packed with trucks and minibuses, with tunnels and bridges that have improved things in recent years. The real riding begins when you turn inland, where side valleys offer long climbs into the Kaçkar range and a gradual shift from coastal humidity to alpine air. Rain is frequent, mist is common, and you should pack waterproofs even in summer.
Trabzon has a quarter of a million inhabitants, so fuel, food and workshops are plentiful. This is the land of hamsi, the Black Sea anchovy, cooked in a dozen ways, and of cornbread, butter, and strong tea. Football is a religion, and Trabzonspor shirts appear everywhere. The best months are May to September, though the hills stay damp, and the sea is warm enough to swim from July.