Sarande is the heart of ‘Albanian Riviera’

Somewhere on Earth there must be a cheaper, easier, more exotic cruise, packed with even more beautiful sights and filled with more history, providing even tastier food, but for now, I’m happy to settle on this one: Ionian Cruises’ daily excursion from Corfu, Greece, to Sarande, Albania.

How cheap is it? Thirty-eight euros (about $55) for the round-trip boat ride, 19 euros (about $27) for a shore excursion that includes a fabulous buffet lunch. That’s about $82 for an enchanting day in Albania, an additional dollar if you want a big glass of wine with lunch.

As my wife, Bobbie, and I boarded the Sotirakis I, we met a Welsh couple who were expecting an Albania wholly different from the one we had read about. We were sailing for Sarande, which has been called the heart of the “Albanian Riviera.”

We wondered. Albania was the fourth-poorest country in Europe, still recovering from the 40-year rule of Communist Party chairman Enver Hoxha, considered the most unyielding dictator on the continent.

Bobbie and I, in the middle of four days in Corfu, were eager to visit a more off-the-beaten-track destination, and this cruise filled the bill. It was laid-back and casual. We bought tickets a day in advance but saw many passengers buying them just before boarding the ship. The only formality was getting our passports stamped.

As we approached Sarande’s horseshoe-shaped bay, we saw a forest of cranes. Every inch of ground but the beach and the seaside promenade seemed to be covered with hotels, condos, cafes and restaurants.

When the Sotirakis I landed, a young woman packed us into buses depending on language. On the French-and-English bus, our guide explained the building boom: Albanian expatriates working abroad believe in investing at home, and they had formed partnerships with Greeks and Eastern Europeans to develop the coast, with great success.

Our bus joined a fleet in the parking lot of Butrint National Park, the object of our tour. Butrint was once the center of a mighty Christian civilization, but its influence diminished under Muslim rule, and it is now a fishing village. As Virgil tells the tale in his “Aeneid,” the city was founded by the Trojan ruling class, led by Aeneas himself, fleeing Troy after it was burned by the Greeks. “I saw before me a Troy in miniature,” Aeneas says of Butrint in the epic.

Butrint was abandoned, and much of it was buried in mud and forgotten until the 20th century, when Italian archaeologists, between 1928 and 1941, dug up much of what we see today.

In 1992, UNESCO named Butrint a World Heritage Site. Five civilizations have left their mark here: Greece, Rome, Byzantium, Venice and the Ottoman Empire. The ruins, just beyond the Strait of Corfu, are not your average pile of rocks; they are beautifully preserved and, according to our guide, neither restored nor reconstructed.

Woodland glades cover most of the 19 acres that once were filled with monumental structures, but 10 remain. Only 15% of Butrint has been excavated, and archaeologists expect to be busy for decades. The oldest buildings standing date from the 4th century B.C.

Our guide led us to a Byzantine church with a large floor mosaic, dominated by dark reds and bright yellows, and finally to a Roman amphitheater built during the 5th century AD on the ruins of a Greek one from the 3rd century BC. It was in remarkably good shape and is still in use. The Russian State Ballet performed here recently, and plays by Euripides, Shakespeare, Molière and Sophocles have been staged as well.

We boarded our air-conditioned bus for a 25-minute drive back for a very late lunch at Palma, a taverna in Sarande. Waiters brought us cold beer, red and white wine and fruit drinks. When our Albanian leke ran out, they accepted euros. Nearly all of us went back for seconds, even the French. The buffet was that good.

Our lunch lasted an hour and a half, and we reboarded the Sotirakis I, rejoined by our bright red and rather damp Welsh acquaintances and others who had found lounges on the beach while we were off to Butrint.

Did Bobbie and I shed our opinion of Albania as a backwater? Only in part. We knew we were seeing the best of it, but it was spectacular and, I might add, great fun.

travel@latimes.com