Berat was a highlight during our time in Albania, a picturesque 2500 year old city known for its houses seemingly stacked one on top of another in two hillside neighborhoods - Gorica and Mangalem - on opposite sides of the Osum River. We were told that these two areas were where the Ottomans put all the Christians to live when the former conquered the area in 1385.
The weather did, however, give us some dramatic scenes.
We stayed inside the Berat castle walls in this AirBnB guesthouse.
It was a great location, away from the crowds in the city and made it easy to wander the castle’s cobbled streets and see some of what we were told were 42 churches inside the walls.
The city, itself, was a pretty bustling place with an attractive pedestrian mall where families with children, old men, and pods of teenagers and young adults strolled, drank coffee, and smoked cigarettes.
We checked out the three mosques - two of which were under repair - and one Catholic Church, as well as a very nice ethnographic museum that presented traditional family and commercial life of the region.
We also did a little wine tasting at a winery a little out of town. It was run by two brothers who grandfather had made wine before the advent of the Hoxha dictatorship. His vineyard was confiscated by the government, but wine-making continued during that regime, and when the brothers had a chance to buy some land and plant some vines, they did so. The grapes they use are nearly all Albanian varieties, and the wine was pretty good.
But one of the best things about our time in Berat was the hotel and restaurant next door to our guesthouse, Klea. We had deliscious meals and yummy cappuccinos there and developed a great relationship with the young man who greeted and served us each time (as well as his mother, the cook).
The weather was quite volatile while we were there ... in fact, the drive to Berat from the coast was quite hairy at times ... here’s Bill driving through a deluged road:
We stayed inside the Berat castle walls in this AirBnB guesthouse.
It was a great location, away from the crowds in the city and made it easy to wander the castle’s cobbled streets and see some of what we were told were 42 churches inside the walls.
The city, itself, was a pretty bustling place with an attractive pedestrian mall where families with children, old men, and pods of teenagers and young adults strolled, drank coffee, and smoked cigarettes.
We checked out the three mosques - two of which were under repair - and one Catholic Church, as well as a very nice ethnographic museum that presented traditional family and commercial life of the region.
We also did a little wine tasting at a winery a little out of town. It was run by two brothers who grandfather had made wine before the advent of the Hoxha dictatorship. His vineyard was confiscated by the government, but wine-making continued during that regime, and when the brothers had a chance to buy some land and plant some vines, they did so. The grapes they use are nearly all Albanian varieties, and the wine was pretty good.
But one of the best things about our time in Berat was the hotel and restaurant next door to our guesthouse, Klea. We had deliscious meals and yummy cappuccinos there and developed a great relationship with the young man who greeted and served us each time (as well as his mother, the cook).
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