Albania's Thermal Valley — the Bënja Thermal Pools, Osumi Canyon gateway, the finest bylmet (sour cream) in Albania, and Permet wine
Permet (Përmet) is a small river town in the Vjosa River valley in southern Albania — 215km south of Tirana, surrounded by the Nemërcka mountain range, with a reputation for exceptional local food products (the sour cream and cheese from the local highland dairy tradition, the Permet raki, and the Permet wine from the Kallmet grape), thermal baths, and as the gateway to the Osumi Canyon and the Gjirokastra region. The town has a distinctive character among Albanian Riviera and highland destinations: smaller, quieter, more genuinely lived-in than Gjirokastër's tourist polish or the coastal res…
Permet has been inhabited since the Bronze Age — the region's hot springs were used in antiquity, with archaeological evidence of Roman-era bathing. The town's current name derives from the Ottoman period; it was a minor administrative town through the Ottoman and subsequent periods. The Permettars (people of Permet) have a reputation in Albania for a conservative, mountain-culture identity despite being in the south — the Bektashi tekke in the mountains above the town reflects the heterodox Islamic tradition of some southern Albanian communities (distinct from the Sunni Hanafi tradition of t…