Albanian Riviera Villages

Albanian Riviera Villages

In the 15th century, the Albanian national hero Skanderbeg legally required every newly married couple to plant two olive trees. The Borsh plain has been continuously planted ever since — some groves here are estimated at 3,000 years old. This is the setting for Debina, the white grape indigenous to this Himara coastline, with saline minerality that tastes like the Ionian Sea got into the fermentation tank. The bay you'll pass, Porto Palermo, was called Panormos — 'wide haven' — since antiquity. Caesar's fleet assessed it. An Ottoman warlord built a fortress over it in 1804. The Albanian navy ran submarines from it during the Cold War. One harbor, four empires.