I’m at the nucleus of one of Europe’s most intriguing cities. In the polished expanse of Skanderbeg Square, as the sun illuminates the Dajti mountain range that encases Tirana, I sense the change.
My knowledge of the Albanian capital had been based on decades of closed Communist dictatorship and film depictions of Soviet-style block housing, dark alleyways and a lot of grey. But I can see that things have moved on.
Tirana’s glossy, modern centre feels like it’s developing as fast as the desert cities of Arabia. The “Tirana 2030” masterplan is focused on preventing urban sprawl by concentrating construction vertically in the…
