Roads
are infrequent and most bridges have broken down. No bridge has
been repaired since the later seventeenth century, and no new bridge
has been made since the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. There
are no shops at all. The scenery is magnificent but precipitous,
and many of the high roads are difficult to trace. And there is
rain. In Albania there is sometimes very heavy rain.
Yet in spite of these drawbacks they spent some splendid hours in
their exploration of that wild lost country beyond the Adriatic
headlands. There was the approach to Cattaro for example, through
an arm of the sea, amazingly beautiful on either shore, that wound
its way into the wild mountains and ended in a deep blue bay under
the tremendous declivity of Montenegro. The quay, with its trees
and lateen craft, ran along under the towers and portcullised gate
of the old Venetian wall, within clustered the town, and then the
fortifications zigzagged up steeply to a monstrous fantastic
fortress perched upon a great mountain headland that overhung the
town.
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