all those crooked, lopsided, curvaceous streets, going off in so many directions, I can't help wondering, what would it be like to wander there?
It would be like the suburbs in the US. Houses are all on cul-de-sacs that wind around and eventually join larger streets which eventually join arterial streets. Pretty much like the map of Istanbul they chose.
Cul-de-sac suburban developments rarely connect to neighboring developments. They don't even always connect to all of the larger streets that they border.
This lack of connectivity between them is the primary criticism. The map of Istanbul suggests that you might wander into a dead-end alley or cul-de-sac, but one does not enter what amounts to a neighborhood full of dead-ends, the only exit from which is the way you came in. It certainly doesn't suggest that any notable fraction of city is subdivided that way.
I don't buy it at all. One of the things I love about Italy is that the level of diversity and odd details in the architecture is amazing, and "fractal" in the more pop-science sense of being able to look at things closer and closer and find new and interesting things to see.
I find US burbs incredibly boring in their sameness, although they do have other advantages.
It would be like the suburbs in the US. Houses are all on cul-de-sacs that wind around and eventually join larger streets which eventually join arterial streets. Pretty much like the map of Istanbul they chose.