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Venis Hotel — Tirana, Albania

The Garden

A stone courtyard under old trees, white armchairs, and an olive that was here long before the hotel was. Guests eat breakfast in it, work in it, and come back to it in the evening with a drink.
White armchairs under the trees
The shaded stone courtyard
The courtyard in the afternoon

THE COURTYARD

Under the trees

The courtyard is paved in pale stone and shaded almost completely — white armchairs, a low table, a red rug thrown down on the paving. It sits between the wings of the building, so it is quiet in a way a street-facing terrace never is.

Greenery against the building
A plant by the window

BREAKFAST OUTSIDE

Where people actually eat

Breakfast is served indoors, and most mornings people carry it out here instead. It is the single detail guests mention most often after the staff — the garden, and having breakfast in it.

A rose in the garden
Flowers along the wall
Flowers by the mirror

IN THE EVENING

A quiet place to sit

In the evening it becomes the place for a drink from the bar; during the day, more than one guest has written about working out here in the peace of it. There is no spa and no pool at Venis. This is what we have instead, and it gets more use.

The lit olive tree and the hotel sign
The sign in front of the building
The building through the trees

AT NIGHT

The olive tree

After dark the olive is strung with lights and the façade is washed from below, and the whole courtyard turns into the reason the hotel photographs the way it does. The sign stands on the lawn underneath it.

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