voice-over: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. how much should our past shape ourfuture? when is it time tojust rebuild? and what if those sorts of questions are asked on the scale of a nation? albania underwent such turbulence in the last century, and until very recently, travellers stayed away. but now they are here because this country is rebounding. between 191m and 1985 albania was under one of the most repressive regimes in the world, led by the communist dictatorship of enver hoxha,

who isolated and impoverished its people. for tourists, they were severely restricted in what they could see, what they could do, and that hotel there was the only place in tirana they could stay. but times have changed for the travellers coming here, and especially for the locals. i feel different now, i feel positive. it's a different energy. so albania is on a good track. and some who once left are now returning. i wanted to be like a jamie oliver, in the sense of changing the food scene. and this food cannot be cooked somewhere else. a place with little known wonders... look at this! ..and a new sense of confidence. here you can see all the civilisations of. mediterranean. and that's why it's _ so important for butrint to be the sense of pride of the nation. - but its dark recent history is far from forgotten,

and nor is the memory of those who took desperate measures in an attempt to escape. it's further than i've ever swam. the current is very strong, and it's pushing me back. sandwiched between montenegro and greece in southern eastern europe sits albania and its sprawling capital, tirana. this is a place that i've never visited in my life, so i'm really excited to find out what this former communist country has to offer and how it's changed in recent times. skanderbeg square, for example, once home to statues of enver hoxha and joseph stalin, has now had the monuments torn down and the square remade as part of one of the largest pedestrianised zones in the balkans.

people couldn't travel abroad, they weren't allowed to drive cars, and they were banned from going into certain parts of the capital city. during communist times, albania became the first country in the world to totally ban religion, leading to countless mosques and churches being closed. but now they've reopened and are thriving again. to find out a little more about albania's transformation, i'm meeting up with eni koco... hello! ..who grew up under hoxha. pleasure to meet you. so why did you want to meet right here? because we are standing right in front of the house where our dictator, enver hoxha, spent most of his lifetime. so did hoxha run the country from this house? we can say yes. together with his mates. we had all the government leaders living here and all the party leaders. we were not allowed to walk in this area. it was totally closed. so in 1990, when we started to have all the, you know,

the uprising of albanians and we have the civil... kind of the civil war here, that we changed the system. the first thing that we did, albanians were coming here in blloku. they were so curious about this area, you know, it was isolated. we didn't know what was going inside. and me as a young person, you know, iwasjust 16 at the time, we were just skipping school. we were coming here the whole day, we were sitting down. it was totally new beginning for us. so what was life like for those who weren't privileged enough to be in here? to tell the truth, it was really difficult. we had a lot of work monday to saturday and then sundays. volunteer work. food was very difficult. so here they were very privileged about that. and outside, we're at the starvation point. one remaining monument here is the piramida. originally, hoxha's daughter spearheaded its creation to celebrate the dictator's life after his death in 1985. at the time, many people, including eni, were forced to visit. over the years, it was left to crumble until its recent

transformation as a community hub, becoming an important symbol of wider fundamental change. this is beautiful! i never realised just how much greenery there is here, all these new buildings shooting up into the sky. yes. what we have constructed after �*905 is all here. and with this object that reminds us of the past. so where were you when you heard that he had died? i was at school, 11 years old. so the teacher, our teacher, comes in and she was sobbing and crying. "our dear dictator enver hoxha passed away today, "so this is a very bad day," and so on. the whole school was out and they were crying, but some of them were also disguising that, they didn't want to express theirjoy and their happiness. i will remember, and i have it in my memory, the impact of that moment, always. the youngsters, you know, they don't even know or remember those times. now they enjoy everything that is freedom, free travelling, dreaming big.

we are moving forward and so albania is on a good track. but of course, the cultures and traditions which make this place distinctive are far from forgotten. saffron? didn't know they had saffron over here. they speak albanian making friends with the locals! i've arranged to meet chef bledar kola at a traditional restaurant he knows well. nice to meet you. here, they serve the sort of food that has fuelled the nation for generations and through the darkest times. so this is trahana, which is a fermented dough. basically, you make the dough, you ferment it for 2h hours. so this is trahana, which is a fermented dough. basically, you make the dough, you ferment it for 2h hours.

you open it out to dry. normally this is a dish... this is something you prepared in the summer. so it's dried out in the sun and then... there's some bread in there as well. the stale bread from the night before. stale bread? yes. and there's quite... it's got a kick to it, i think. yeah. and so you cook it like a porridge and then basically... or like a polenta, let's say. this is a breakfast, the typical breakfast that poor people would have eaten in the morning. feels like the sort of food that, you have this in the morning, and then you can go out and work all day. albania is like a melting pot of food cultures. like, everyone came here, left some food culture as well. it's like we are at the route between east and west. and the last thing i haven't tried here is this. this is pace koke. this is a braised head. it's made out of sometimes with head, sometimes... head? the head of the animal. which animal? this is a cow. ok, here we go. sorry, that one�*s just a little bit too much for me. it's just you said that was the head. oh, my god.

and ifeel like i've tasted some brain or something. you have everything there, brain... really? ok, so it was brain! but all that food is just for starters. bledar wants to take me to his own restaurant, which he opened recently. this is very different to where we were before. it looks a little bit more modern, a little bit more contemporary. this is grand park. and this is the biggest park in tirana. at bledar�*s restaurant, he serves modern takes on traditional albanian cuisine, using techniques he learned from living much of his adult life in the uk. in the 1990s, when communist leadership finally fell for good here, a huge task of rebuilding lay ahead. but by late 1996, pyramid schemes had consumed nearly half the country's annual income. when they collapsed the following year, thousands lost their life savings and albania descended into anarchy. many felt compelled to flee as albania struggled

to find its feet. so let's go. go to the kitchen. for bledar, who left around that time, reaching the uk involved a perilous journey, clinging to the underside of a lorry. i was 15 years old and then i had my brother in england. so the reason was financial, of course. and, yeah, so i ended up under the lorry... ..and it was really funny, funny now, but at the moment it was very risky. so we were like five guys under the lorry. so they said to me, "when we say to jump off, "you have to jump off and then to get out of the lorry." so when the lorry came out of the ship, we had tojump off before it went to the motorway. so i was the only guy there, the youngest guy. and then they said me "jump," ijumped and then accidentally the lorry started to drive, and grabbed myjacket and it drove me like 15 metres under the lorry. no way! yes. and then, yeah... you must have been terrified.

yeah. it was terrifying at the time. and you decide to go into cooking? yes. at this moment, as i see, it was the only solution to find yourself. bledar�*s crossing was illegal, highly dangerous, and he is far from alone in doing so. even today, polls show that many people here would like to leave what remains one of europe's poorest nations, where corruption is still a problem and eu membership seems a long way off. but amid gradual improvements, some people like bledar are now returning with new skills to pass on. there are more albanians now who live outside of albania than in albania. what made you want to come back here? it was not nice when i said to someone, "i'm albanian," they always straight away thought criminals, drug dealers, prostitution and everything else. all the bad things about the albanian image. so what i wanted to do is, i wanted to be like a...

let's say, like a jamie oliver in the sense of change in the food scene, on the people. this food cannot be cooked somewhere else. because if you do this in england, i don't have the ingredients. i don't have the feeling of terroir. i don't have the feeling of the people, the weather, everything else. yeah. so what is this? what have we got? so this is a pace sandwich which comes from kukesi in the north. so, basically, you eat this and you drink this. 0k. mm! i like that. it's a bit like a, um... like a beef and onion pie or something, you know? i can totally taste that sort of influence there. what is this? this is a braised head. the brain? the brain thing that you didn't like. it's the brain thing that i didn't like in the other place? he laughs it tastes delicious. when i look at these dishes, i can see a modern, contemporary influence on them. yet it is still using those traditional ingredients. it's recycling the past to make

something that is completely new, and in this case, delicious. mm. so good. and with that, my time in the country's capital comes to an end. i'm heading 300km by car to the ancient ruins of butrint, a unesco world heritage site dating back thousands of years. this journey not so long ago would've seemed far more challenging. so we've left the hustle and bustle of tirana behind, and now it's the mountainous terrain and windy roads down south. this trip used to take about six, six and a half hours, but because the roads are now so much better that journey has nearly halved. this is butrint. here at the foot of this country lies one of

the greatest preserved ancient cities in the mediterranean. look at this place. i'm in genuine disbelief. i've visited pompeii a couple of times, been to athens — and itjust looks so familiar. yet i've never, ever seen a picture of this place. clearly, this is one of those hidden gems of albania. used by civilisations for millennia, once a greek colony around 1000 bc, and later built upon by the romans — some say for their battle—weary soldiers. 0h, here we are. theatre. how many civilisations, whether it's the ottomans, whether it was the ancient romans, have used this sort of space? and it's been built in a way where i feel my voice projecting. ahhh! and you can hear it back as well.

ani tare has spent the last three decades working to preserve this site. ani, what a place. i couldn't think of anywhere better to sit and learn more about butrint. tell me about this place. what is it that makes it so unique, so special? well, here you can see all the civilisations of the mediterranean coming and going and living. so butrint, over the history, had connections somehow to the important stories around the mediterranean. in 1992, it was the first place in albania declared a unesco world heritage site, preserving just some of the rich cultural history that lies beyond the shadow cast by the events of the last century. what is this? the grand basilica of butrint, one of the largest of its kind in the balkans. built by emperorjustinian, the same person who built st sophia of constantinople.

i canjust picture it right now, people coming in from there. mosaics on the floor. yes, we can see them. mosaics on the walls. what a glorious place and so well preserved and kept. it is very well preserved, because in the 1ath, 15th century it has been restored due to an earthquake. and that's why the structure is very good. we found recently that this was built on top of a roman bathhouse. it's been 30 years for me. it's like a life legacy. when my kids in the states ask me why i have a small house, i show them butrint. this is their father's legacy. the archaeological heritage at butrint is one part of a huge national park rich in biodiversity, with the ancient city as its focal point. we got maybe 2,000 people a day to visit the site, and that brings another problem because the site becomes too popular.

it has been a struggle in the last 30 years to protect the beauty and the history of butrint from, of course, originally from the neglect after the fall of communism when the institutions sort of got paralysed by the changes. but also with the developers trying to build around the site, because obviously it's so beautiful. so it has been a life work. not just for myself, of course, but for many people involved here. let me tell you something. in 2000, right after the kosovo war, we started here an ancient drama festival. here where we're sitting people would come in the beginning, they were noisy, they would eat seeds, they didn't understand what was going on, and they used to steal the cushions. in five years, the local people here would come beautifully dressed. nobody makes noise. everybody respected the theatre. nobody stole cushions in five years.

why? because culture made them aware and gave them a sense of pride. and that's what i think is so important for butrint — to be the sense of pride of the nation. i love that. not for tourism. carved into butrint�*s masonry may lie a clue as to the ancient city's origins. legend says it was here that a bull struggled ashore after swimming from the nearby island of corfu, wounded after escaping sacrifice from helenus, son of the last king of troy. helenus considered it a sign from the gods and founded the city where the bull had reached land. several millennia later, that stretch of water, called the straits of corfu, holds a whole new significance — which i've come to see for myself. back under communism, it's estimated that hundreds or even thousands used

the crossing point to try to swim to freedom. look how choppy this water is. yeah, it's making me think of all those people who did this freedom swim to try and escape from albania to corfu. sadly, many died under communist gunfire or were lost at sea. what must it have been like for them not knowing whether they were going to make it, not knowing if they were going to be hit by one of those bullets. now, in remembrance of those who attempted to flee, the journey has been given a new and positive twist. for the last decade an annual swim called albania overboard has been taking place. this year i'm due to join them. i'm onlyjust starting to realise how much of a big deal this is. er, a 3k swim doesn't really sound like much. when you see it laid

out in front of you, albania all the way to corfu. yeah. let's be honest, i'm actually pretty worried now. it's just so vast! but, as the swim draws near, i hear that bad weather has changed the route. we're now going to hug the corfu coast. but crucially, the distance will be the same and will be finishing at the spot the escaping albanians came ashore. how are you feeling? i think, to be honest with you, i'm quite happy we're not going to be over the deep water. mm—hm. but no, it's going to be great. it's going to be fun. i'm excited. i'm a little bit nervous, i won't lie. so anything you think i should keep in mind? don't go out too fast. yeah. and it's actually not as far as you think it is. and enjoy it, because it'll be done before you know it. there will be a horn saying, everyone off.

san stefano's that way. all right, here we go. let's do this. horn blares right in front of me i can see albania. the mountains of albania are just towering over this horizon. it's the end of the alps. it makes you just realise how close corfu and albania are to each other. i've used up way too much oxygen already! this is further than i've ever swum. the current is very strong and it's pushing me back. so much respect to all them who used to try and do this to escape albania. but it is incredibly challenging and i'll admit i have to stop for a break.

to be fair it's fine. i'm just a slow swimmer. still, i'm determined to soldier on to get to the final stretch. i'm starting to get a little bit tired now. swallowing a bit more water. but the end is in sight. i can see it. how incredible. and do you know what i'm thinking about? it's the same spot where so many of those albanians would've ended up after doing that gruelling swim, what it must�*ve felt like for them to escape that regime and come to corfu. for me, ijust can't wait to touch dry land. for them, i bet they couldn't wait to touch freedom.

it's a freedom that today, back in albania, i have loved seeing the people there inhabit and explore. a country that seems to be changing for those that stay and those who return. and here, where the aqueduct used to be. and those who are fighting to recognise their past and reconcile it with their present and future with pride and optimism. they cheer and applaud done. sitting here in corfu, a tourism hot spot where almost two million people visit each year, it's going to be really interesting to see what happens in albania, a country with so much potential that is only a swim away. i really am fascinated to know how tourism develops there.

hello there. well, temperatures struggling to get much past freezing by day and once again, it is the coldest night of the winter so far. now, lots of lying snow, particularly for the northern half of the uk, and there could be some issues with snow melt over the next few days or so as the air turns gradually milder from the north and the west. lots of flood warnings still in place. not too much rain falling out of the sky. it is going to be mostly dry but other issues will include icy stretches and freezing fog. but this is the temperature anomaly map as we head through the next few days, so you can see marked in blue here on the map — this is where it's colder than average at the moment. then it turns milder, warmer across northern ireland and scotland into sunday. eventually, the milder air

will push further southwards and eastwards for the start of next week, but it's a slow process. and as we head through saturday, this cloud gradually pushes further eastwards, freezing fog patches across many parts of england and wales slow to lift and clear, reducing visibility on our roads. bit a patchy light rain and drizzle into parts of western scotland with the wind picking up for some irish sea coasts, but some sunshine later on in the day for northern ireland. sunny skies, too, with the colder air further east but again, temperatures for many won't make it much past low single figures. and it stays cold, too, on saturday night into sunday. perhaps not quite as cold as on friday night but temperatures still well below freezing for many, particularly towards the eastern half of the uk. for these western coasts, it is turning milder. and if we just take a look at the pressure chart, you can see the high pressure gradually retreats further eastwards, taking the colder air with it, just allowing these weather fronts to introduce milder conditions across northern ireland and again for scotland this time on sunday, where temperatures

will start to pick up. watch out for that snow melt, though, of course. so, the winds pick up towards these irish sea coasts. there will be some outbreaks of rain pushing across the western isles into western scotland. further south, this is where we'll see the best of the sunshine and temperatures here won't make it much past four or five celsius, but ten in western scotland, in northern ireland and towards south—west england, too. and that milder air will eventually win out, pushing further southwards and eastwards as we head through monday and tuesday. so, if we take a look at our outlook for our capital cities, then you can see that by the time we get to tuesday, we're back up into double figures across the board. mostly dry in the south. some rain, though, at times further north. bye— bye.

live from london, this is bbc news. a night—time curfew is in force

in parts of los angeles worst—hit by devastating wildfires, which have killed at least 11 people. this is the scene live as fires burn for a fourth night. california's governor calls for an investigation into how water shortages impaired the fight against the wildfires. donald trump again insists he's innocent following his sentencing in his hush—money case. the president elect avoided prison or a fine. and will tiktok be banned in the us later this month? the app's fate is now up to the supreme court. hello, i'm nicky schiller. welcome to the programme. let's start in los angeles where it nine o'clock in the evening and firefighters are still battling to contain those massive devastating wildfires which have been raging forfour days.