• e-mail

奮起させるd by the travels of three doughty Britons ? Lord Byron, the Hon Aubrey Henry Molyneux Herbert (half-brother of the 5th Earl of Carnarvon, who helped 暴露する Tutankhamun’s tomb), and the feisty adventurer Edith Durham, we 始める，決める out 調査するing Albania, with three landscapes to 征服する／打ち勝つ ? river, mountain and sea.

There were four of us; my husband and I and our 20-something daughters.

I’ve been bringing them here for 15 years but now travel in Albania is にわか景気ing. After 50 years of 孤立／分離 under a 共産主義者 政権 ? with 独裁者 Enver Hoxha in office from 1944 to 1985 and fully 独立した・無所属 only since 1992 ? Albania is welcoming the world with open 武器.

Albanians have a beautiful, time-honoured phrase ? ‘blessed are your feet for bringing you here’. So, get to Albania 急速な／放蕩な while the welcome is 甘い and authentic, and a feast for four costs little more than a 一連の会議、交渉／完成する in a UK pub.

CAKE... AT 3,000FT

?Kruje 城, pictured, is 40 minutes from the 資本／首都, Tirana

I admire the Albanian 態度 to cake. They are 広大な／多数の／重要な 早期に morning cake-eaters, often freshly baked with oranges or kumquats and crunchy with pumpkin seeds.

Luckily there are mountain 引き上げ（る）s to を取り引きする the 必然的な results.

Above Kruje 城, 40 minutes from the 資本／首都 Tirana, there is a 激しく揺する-削減（する） 神社 belonging to the Bektashi sect (a combination of イスラム教徒, Christian and 古代の beliefs) which 崩壊（する）s time.

Some 3,000ft high, lit by candles, 巡礼者s come here to make offerings: meat and perfumed oil.

A Bektashi baba ? with a long white 耐えるd that Noah would have envied ? confided in me that the only thing Bektashis revile are 明らかにする 膝s and rabbits.

This is tricky in Albania as lolloping rabbits 同様に as plump ducks and baby donkeys 株 many of the mountain roads.

Bettany, pictur ed above, has been bringing her family to Albania for 15 years?

An 年輩の woman sold me freshly 選ぶd coltsfoot flowers for tea and rose oil for my hair. It’s 平易な to imagine why Byron so loved this place.

It reminded him of the remote Highlands of Scotland. Moving south from Tirana to the mountain-見解（をとる） city of Berat, with sacred 開始する Tomorr lighting up 炎上 red in the morning, its slopes home to 耐えるs, booted eagles and 黒人／ボイコット vultures, this city ‘of a thousand windows’ was a merchant’s stop on the old silk 大勝するs.

We stayed in Hotel Vila Aleksander and woke to the cluck of 女／おっせかい屋s laying eggs. Albania has a 猛烈な／残忍な code of 歓待 ? Besa ? which means people will give up all to 保護する 尊敬（する）・点d guests.

It became one of the rare places where the ユダヤ人の 全住民, おもに 難民s 逃げるing the Nazis, was greater after the Second World War than before.

COASTAL REVIVAL

Bettany 明らかにする／漏らすs that at Grama Bay, pictured, there are still 古代の inscriptions, some 23 centuries old, peppering the cliffs??

With the island of Corfu 明白な on a （疑いを）晴らす day and Italy just a four-hour フェリー（で運ぶ） ride away, the Albanian riviera is starting to にわか景気.

My favourite 航海の Albanian captain, on the Ionian coast around the city of Vlore, is called Baci, who arranges bespoke trips to the uninhabited nature reserve of Karaburuni, where at Grama Bay there are still 古代の inscriptions, some 23 centuries old, peppering the cliffs.

There are 深く心に感じた 祈りs to the mythical sailor brothers of Helen of Troy, Castor and Pollux.

Butrint is a 場所／位置 where 古代の Greek remains peek through Roman arches, Byzantine mosaics and the remains of Venetian lagoons, says Bettany.? Pictured: The remains of?Bu trint's theatre

After an 探検 of the haunting, ホームラン-worthy sea 洞穴s, Captain Baci’s dockside （米）棚上げする／（英）提議するs 申し込む／申し出d fresh fish, caught and fried as we waited, golden 半導体素子s and a tricolori salad better than any I’ve eaten in Italy.

その上の south, about three hours 運動, Butrint ? said to be 設立するd by the hero of the Trojan War, Aeneas ? is a 場所／位置 where 古代の Greek remains peek through Roman arches, Byzantine mosaics and the remains of Venetian lagoons.

We passed through without staying 夜通し but Dua Lipa and other 星／主役にするs in the Albanian-Kosovan firmament rent 郊外住宅s at nearby Kep Merli.

GOING WITH THE FLOW

Bettany says that 訪問者s can go white-water rafting on the Vjosa River, above?

Rivers in Albania carry liquid history. The wild 水路 of Vjosa has been turned into a 国家の park, flowing into the Adriatic from the Pindus Mountains in Greece.

Chamomile tea is from the meadows, cherry jam from the shading wild cherries. Around the 要塞 town of Tepelene, the Vjosa swells to 申し込む／申し出 white-water rafting.

It is 価値（がある） に引き続いて the river Osum and its 支流s too, 側面に位置するd between the town of Berat and tiny village of Roshnik by fresh olive and apricot 立ち往生させるs.

Our daughters Sorrel and May 主張するd they 扱う／治療する us to a thank-you meal. 地元のs told us to find a place called Alpeta. Our （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する was 速く 厚い with spiced goats cheese, jugs of red and white ワイン, 麻薬を吸うing corn bread, courgette pies.

We ate until we could eat no more. I could see the girls nervously checking their Monzo accounts. The cost? £36 for four.