Destinations: Butrint, Albania

Upon hearing that photographer Giovanni Lattanzi and I were planning to visit the Greek isle of Corfu, an archaeologist friend of ours exclaimed, “Oh, good! You’ll be visiting Butrint.” “Butrint? What’s that?” I asked. “It’s simply the last major unexcavated archaeological site in the Mediterranean.” I had already begun imagining a picnic on a remote, sunlit Greek islet, surrounded only by a few scattered stones and perhaps some goats, when our friend added soberly: “It’s in Albania.” Albania? Just last year, Albania was engulfed in a chaotic and bloody civil war. Pictures of armed civilians clashing with government forces […]