UZBEKISTAN – “Wait until we get to Khiva,” my Uzbek friend Otabek Saidov whispers whenever I gush over the country’s beautiful sights, as he takes my sister and me on a tour of the country.

From the moment I stepped off the plane in Lisbon, the tiles seemed to beckon. Everywhere I turned, colorfully painted tiles covered homes and businesses, inside and out. Walls, windows and steps ...