Sleep in a mountain village snow cuts off most winters

Theth is a village at 750 meters in the Albanian Alps, in a valley with mountains on every side. One road reaches it, and snow closes that road most winters until April. Most of the families who live here come up only for the summer.

The road climbs out of the plain from Shkodër, over the pass at Qafa e Thorës and down into the valley: 73 kilometers, a little over two hours on the map and longer in a minibus that stops at the top.

The night is spent in one of those families' houses, eating what they cook, with the peaks close enough to feel personal. The stone church built in 1892, the one in every picture of Theth, is in the village, and so is a tower built for hiding from a blood feud, which is the next morning's business.

On paper Theth is no longer a park of its own. In 2022 its national park and the one in the Valbonë valley next door were merged into the Alps of Albania National Park, though there is still a mountain between the two villages and no road over it.