Driving through Tirana, I can’t help but look up. My taxi driver, Erion, leans over the steering wheel and points to the buildings around us. ‘That’s new, that one is a couple of years old, that one ...

Strolling around the leafy, boutique-lined streets of Blloku, Tirana's fashionable cafe and nightlife district, it's almost ...

That was the reaction from most friends when I told them I was heading to ­Tirana last October ... the large pedestrianised plaza at the heart of the city that’s home to the opera house ...