Potam · Himarë · Albania

The garden

The grove the house stands in is a working one — old olives with limewashed trunks, citrus trees, a vine over the back wall. Between and under them the property has laid flagstone: a sun terrace, a picnic area, outdoor furniture, and a walled courtyard round the back.

A flagstone garden terrace with a table, looking past olive and citrus trees to the mountains

The garden terrace, looking inland to the ridge

Two levels of outside

The ground-floor rooms have their own terraces, set behind frosted screens so the beds of geraniums are shared but the tables are not. Above them the balconies stack up the face of the block, each with its table and its rail.

The courtyard at the back

Behind the house a flagstone court sits inside a stone wall topped with a reed screen, with young cypresses in the corner and low seating on the paving.

Ground-floor room terraces behind frosted glass screens, with flower beds — Ground-floor terraces, screened and planted

A walled flagstone courtyard with beanbag seating and young cypresses — The walled courtyard behind the house

Two paddleboards and paddles standing against the garden's stone wall under a vine — Paddleboards against the garden wall, under the vine

Down to the water

Potami Beach is the nearest, downhill through the grove and across the coast road, about 350 metres from the door in a straight line. Prinos is the next cove north, at about half a kilometre; Maraçi is the one after that, just under a kilometre.

Potami Beach in the Himarë guide Finding the house