1939 Albania Guide
1939. End of the age of travel. The era of tourism begins. As does the fascist occupation of Albania. The first Tourist Guide of Albania, by the Consociazione Turistica Italiana, also saw the light that year. The cover and the format are very reminiscent of Mao’s Red Book. A strange coincidence for a country
that will turn into an autarkic communist state in 1944. The original guide from 1939 found me at an antiquarian shop of Rruga Qemal Stafa in Tirana. The anastatic reprint published in 1997, after the country reopened, was already part of my collection. I had bought it in the hope of finding Buzëmadh in some old maps.
Looking for old postcards in Tirana, I found the twin postcard (color) of one of the postcards my grandfather sent to my grandmother in 1942 (b/n) for their Love Correspondence.
