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"La Repubblica": Crazy prices in Italy are driving tourists away to Albania

2023-08-06 22:27:08Aktualitet SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
"La Repubblica": Crazy prices in Italy are driving tourists away to
"La Repubblica": Crazy prices in Italy are driving tourists away to Albania

Crazy prices in Italy drive tourists away to Albania, writes "La Repubblica".

"In the queue at the port terminal of Bari, among the faces of already elderly immigrants returning home for vacation, colorful backpacks, water bottles, girls' bags, diving equipment or straw hats appear. As well as the usual raucous shouting of Italian groups on holiday.

A couple of parents try to calm their worried child. They are tired after driving from Rome at night to catch the 1pm ferry. The head of the family, Andrea, is 52 years old and is a clerk.

"We excluded Italy from our projects after the pandemic. Last year we went to Greece and had a great time. Croatia, now that it has entered the euro, it is better not to approach it. Let's see how it will go in Albania", he says.

He and his wife, Valentina, 52, live it as a bet. They booked two weeks ago, now they are on board the ship "Francesca" bound for Durrës.

On the road that once had only one direction, the escape from poverty of a people that had just experienced democracy after decades of communism, now another "escape" is happening, a little more discreet, certainly less dramatic, but still driven by the economy.

"Holidays in Italy are expensive everywhere. We went to Santa Maria di Leuca before Covid and the prices were high. I've been reading in the papers how beach managers make excuses these days and it makes me laugh. They say they target the richest people," he emphasizes.

The couple booked three hotels for themselves and their two children aged 16 and 19 in Tirana, Saranda and another location in the south.

"We paid a total of 1,200 euros, plus 850 euros for the ferry with a car on board. A bit much, to stay at the docks, but still affordable. Now we will see how much we will spend on food. They tell us that prices have increased there as well, but certainly not as much as in Italy", he adds.

Angela and Raffaele left Caserta. She works in an analysis laboratory, he is a worker in an electrical installation company.

"Last year we went to Polignano and paid 540 euros for three nights. Wonderful place. But here, with 1,380 euros, we can afford nine days, two in Tirana, three in Vlora and four in Saranda, a four-star hotel with a view of the sea, in addition to the ferry ride by car," he says.

Fabio organizes motorcycle races in Treviso.

"As a tourist, it's the third time I go there and I never stop. We went to Croatia in June and it was very expensive, as a coffee costs three euros".

Leonardo Atene, 39, from Trebisacce, in the province of Cosenza, jokes with him.

"I've been around the world, I've been on vacation everywhere, now the money has run out and I'm going to Albania," he adds.

He goes to stay with friends. Because another strong point of Italian tourism in the Land of Eagles is that it breathes the air of home, among newly acquired relatives and consolidated friendships.

Marco Giommetti, for example, is a professor of mathematics and physics from Pesaro.

"I will be a guest of Florian, a former university friend of Albanian origin who is an engineer in Bologna. I was there last year as well, in Albania. And I was like God. A sumptuous fish dinner will cost you a maximum of 25 euros, double that in Italy. And I know more and more people who are choosing to come here. My mom also wants to buy a house!” he adds.

The personal story of Ingrid Papa, the 36-year-old Romanian piano teacher, mixes with the winds that blow between the two shores of the Adriatic.

"My grandmother was Italian and was trapped in Albania during the Second World War. I have been in Rome since 1992, I came with my parents and now I wanted to take my boyfriend with me to rediscover my origins, she adds.

On the other hand, Benjamin and Katherine are PhD students in philosophy, he is Italian-American, she is Swiss from Bern.

"We don't go to the sea. We will sleep in a guesthouse in Durrës and from there we will explore the interior, we will go to Montenegro where my father lived", says Benjamin.

Whole families lying on the ground spend the long afternoon of the crossing, someone has brought their own pillow to sleep on. There is very little left of this ship of old voyages made out of necessity in the 90s.

Now Albania presents itself as a world still virgin and to be explored, but ready to be the background of intellectual desires and wanderlust.

Albanians welcome the Europeans who welcomed them when they had the problem of how to survive.

They return the hospitality, but without any more inferiority complexes.

Fejzi Kokla is 56 years old and has lived half his life in Cremonese, where he works as a metalworker.

His children are high school graduates and one of them gave birth to his first grandchild a few days ago.

"In the beginning, only the bravest came to us. And they told us that we were not like those who escaped from prisons, those who damaged our image in the 90s. They built new roads and hotels. And finally, Albania is known for what it is. A beautiful and civilized place to go on vacation".


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