Zog
Late in the afternoon Dhendri relents and we drive up into the hills around Durres, close to the pink summer palace of King Zog, Albania's first and only king. Little birds flit around the wild herbs and the Principessa runs around chasing the goats which wander onto the road here. Dhendri gives her a 10 Leke coin, minted in the year of her birth.
(This was also the year when Zog's widow, Geraldine, and her son were allowed to return to Tirana, the family having been in exile since Mussolini's invasion. She lived only a few months longer, dying in the military hospital at about the time of Dhendri's own return to the country.)
Tomorrow we're due to return to Bari on the 11am crossing and will stay there overnight before catching the daily flight to London the next morning.
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