Our last stop on this trip, also down south, a 2½-hour drive from Gjirokaster and just under two from Tirana, the charming "City of a Thousand Windows" (pop. around 62,000) is known for being home to one of two of Albania´s UNESCO World Heritage towns (sharing that status with Gjirokastër) thanks to two features: the multitude of Ottoman houses (and their "thousand windows" in its old Mangalem quarter (pictured here), the traditionally, equally picturesque but more residential feeling Gorica neighborhood across the Osum River (connected by the handsome 18th-century Gorica Bridge as well as a more modern bridge) and the medieval castle district 214 feet up on the hill that looms above. Roaming the sloping cobblestone streets of these riverside districts is a bit like traveling back in time, despite the tourist lodgings and (fortunately not too tacky) shops which now inhabit a number of the houses, at least in Mangalem.

Read more in my post Our Eye-opening Exploration of Albania.

David Paul Appell