All language subtitles for BBC.Mediterranean.with.Simon.Reeve.1of4.720p.HDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org.eng

I'm on a journey around
the Mediterranean.

It's the sea that attracts
around a third of world tourism.

The birthplace of civilisations...

Just look at that!

..where extraordinary wealth...

This one's got a helicopter on it.

..meets shocking poverty.

I take my flipping hat
off to them, I really do.

Look at the scale
of the destruction!

They're on the edge of the Med.

It's a sea of wild extremes.

Yes, yes, look!

The first leg of my journey
takes me from Malta,

along the coast of southern Italy,
and on to Albania.

In Italy's beautiful deep south...

Italian wedding!

..I meet some of the Med's
most ancient inhabitants.

Oh!

Look at the size of you!

Ciao, amore!

I go on a mission with the
elite team hunting

Europe's most powerful Mafia...

I've never seen anything like this.

..and discover the dark heart
of the Mediterranean.

The value of the drugs in the convoy
is anything up to £200 million.

The Mediterranean,
the very name means,

"The centre of the world."

Bounded by three continents -
Europe, Africa and Asia -

the Mediterranean has shaped
so much of our history.

I'm in a beautiful old fishing boat,
and I'm about to start my journey

around the Mediterranean,
here in Malta.

It's gorgeous, look at it!

For thousands of years,
Malta has been at the absolute

crossroads of history,
of trade, of culture,

forever critical,
strategic and vital.

More than 20 countries
border the Mediterranean.

I was starting my epic journey
in the centre of the sea,

in the smallest state
in the European Union.

I headed to Malta's beautiful
capital, Valletta.

Look at this, what a position
on this incredible natural harbour!

I am so excited about being here!

First time!

I'd always wanted to visit Malta.

The country has a
spectacular history.

These walls have seen
endless conquest, invasion.

In 1565, there was an epic battle
here, where the Knights of Malta,

in their grand fortifications,
rebuffed an enormous Ottoman Turkish

invasion force that, arguably,
ultimately saved

Southern and Western Europe.

Jason, thank you, mate.

No problem.

Nearly!

Give us a push!

Oh!

This is brilliant. This is a great
way to arrive, come on!

Modern-day Malta is booming,
driven partly

by a huge surge in tourists.

The population is less
than half a million.

Around five times that number
of tourists comes here

on holiday now every year.

But soaring rents are pushing
many Maltese out of the most

crowded tourist hotspots.

Some worry tiny Malta
is being overwhelmed.

SCREAMING AND SHOUTING

It's one thing to see
a punch-up, isn't it?

But that was sort of a mass brawl,

involving 30 people
spilling into the street.

Completely bizarre.

There are quite a few people
here in Malta who are saying

that this country is selling
its soul to mass tourism,

with all the attendant
problems that come with it -

like the drunkenness -

but, much more seriously,
it's selling its soul in terms

of dodgy and corrupt
business and finance,

and organised crime.

The wealth here is
just unbelievable.

Oh, bloody hell, this one, look,
this one's got a helicopter on it.

Flipping heck.

As the economy grows rapidly,
the source of some of Malta's riches

is coming under
increasing suspicion.

I met up with Manuel Delia...

Manuel. How are you?

..one of Malta's most
outspoken campaigners.

Where is all this money coming from?

Well, we have less,
lower taxes here, so people come

and set up their companies here

but when that is used to front

for people to launder
their money from crime,

or from corruption,
then it becomes a serious problem.

So, your belief and allegation
is that Malta is becoming a base

for international money-laundering?

Yes.

Take our online gaming industry.

The Italian Mafia was using
it to launder their money.

Malta is being used to
launder the Mafia's money?

Yes, yes, yes.

The European Parliament and
Europol, the law enforcement

agency of the European Union,
are among those expressing serious

concern about
money-laundering in Malta.

Critics say Malta isn't doing
nearly enough to investigate dodgy

companies and dirty money
sloshing around on the island.

Now we also make money
by selling Maltese passports,

one of these.

It's a Maltese passport, but it's
also a European Union passport,

so we're basically selling
European citizenship,

a million euro a pop.

So, somebody can buy
citizenship in Malta,

and access the
European Union, as well?

So, they don't have to live here.

No, they're supposed to, but what
they do is they just rent garages.

So, I found a garage where some
four Russian billionaire tycoons

are supposed to be living inside.

No way! Well, obviously
they don't live there.

No. They've never actually seen it,
but they pay rent there,

in order to get this.

Malta's not alone in
selling citizenship.

Its government insists it
carries out proper checks

on its passport scheme, and the
country's financial system.

But there have been extraordinary
allegations of corruption

and criminality at the
highest levels in Malta.

Some even describe
it as a Mafia state.

Manuel's friend, journalist
Daphne Galizia, was investigating

the dirty money and
corruption in Malta.

It made her enemies.

In 2017, they came for her.

This is where she lived.

It couldn't be a more,
apart from the road,

a more beautiful and peaceful
setting, really, could it?

She was at home,
she worked from home,

and she wrote her last blog
at about half past two

in the afternoon.

So, it's almost three,
and she tells her son,

"Listen, I need to go to the bank,"
and she drives out.

Where we are now is where
the first explosion hits,

and it hits because someone
from right across the valley

communicated with his mate,
who was out on a boat at sea.

Out on the Mediterranean?

That guy sent a message
to a detonator, which was inside

the car, and it exploded.

Daphne's car transformed
into a ball of fire,

with her inside.

My God.

Now it's no longer a car,
now it's just a moving flame,

and it's just crawling where we
are now, over the first field,

and into the second one.

Oh, my goodness.

Yes.

The car stopped here,
was consumed here.

As you can see, there's this
bald patch in the field here.

Her final spot.

Her son, he hears the explosion.

Barefooted, he just
runs to get here.

Oh, my God.

And he gets here, and the
car is just billowing fire.

But he knows...

He knows there's nothing you can do.

When did you hear what had happened?

I got a call at three
minutes past three.

A friend of mine.

He said, "I think they got Daphne."

That's how clear it
was when it happened.

We knew she was in danger,
she knew she was in danger.

On the day Daphne was murdered,

she wrote, "There are crooks
everywhere you look now.

"The situation is desperate."

She kept holding up a
mirror to people in power,

people who are not used
to having that done to them,

and those people, boy, they're
glad she's not there any more.

It's the 21st century
and, on this spot,

down that road, a journalist
was blown up with a car bomb,

and died in this field.

It is an absolutely
incredible event.

It should shake the absolute
pillars of society, here.

It has a chilling effect,
it conditions the way you work,

the way you think
about your own country.

It's a country where
a journalist can be killed,

because it has happened.

Three men are awaiting trial
for Daphne Galizia's murder,

but many people suspect whoever
gave the orders remains at large.

I have waited 20 years to come here.

I've read about the glorious
history of these islands,

and really looked forward
to starting the journey here,

and I'm sorry to say
there is something rotten

in this country.

These are dark times in Malta.

There have actually been at
least 19 bomb attacks in Malta

in recent years, shocking
in a country so associated

with Mediterranean tourism.

Yet still now, many in Malta
remain in denial about the scale

of corruption and
crime on the islands.

I continued my journey
around the Mediterranean,

travelling on to southern Italy.

So, we're heading across
the water to Calabria,

which is the remote mountainous
province that fills

the toe of Italy.

It's one of the great areas
for ancient mythology.

Hercules is said
to have swum across here.

The Argonauts sailed through here.

It's interesting to see
the container ship, actually,

because one of the biggest
container ports in the entire

Mediterranean is just
around the corner.

The Mediterranean Sea is less than
1% of the global ocean area,

but it's vital for world trade.

The port of Gioia Tauro receives
an astonishing 2.5 million

enormous shipping
containers every year.

Just look at the scale of this!

These sealed boxes come
in here from all over the world,

and they bring the stuff
of life with them.

Medicines, showers, nappies, pianos,
pineapples or anything else

that we shift around the world.

But many of them are also
smuggling illicit goods.

We are in a region that is under
the thumb of the 'Ndrangheta,

the Mafia which is the most
powerful international organised

crime syndicate in
the whole of Europe.

The 'Ndrangheta is a Mafia-type
group that's hardly known

outside Italy, but it's had
this part of the country

in its grip for decades.

It's now also a global force,
smuggling up to 80% of Europe's

cocaine from South America,
with large quantities coming

through this port.

I met up with Lieutenant Colonel
Giampiero Carrieri

from the Guardia di Finanza,
Italy's anti-smuggling police.

What is the normal process
by which cocaine in particular

is being smuggled in here?

Do the shipping companies...?
Are they part of the whole thing?

No, no, no.

You know, it's only until you get up
close to these shipping containers

you realise the size of them,
and how impossible it almost is

to find something illicit
that's been hidden inside.

Needle and haystack
doesn't come close.

This container was clean,
but Colonel Carrieri and his team

have had success in their efforts
to intercept the smuggling

of cocaine.

But finding it also
means getting rid of it,

transporting it through
the heartland of the 'Ndrangheta.

What are we doing, what's your plan?

So, we are on over-watch duties
for a convoy of narcotics

that's being taken for destruction.

The value of the drugs
in the convoy is anything

up to around £200 million.

It is a load that would inspire
almost any gang to attack

and try and get them back.

My God, look at them all.

The convoy is just below us.

There's an unmarked car at
the front,

and then marked vehicles
surrounding an armoured van.

All the time, they're looking
for anything unusual on the route,

for spotters,
for people following them.

Remember, the Mafia
have used car bombs

just a generation ago,
that were so powerful,

they registered on
Italy's earthquake scale.

I feel like I have seen things
like this in far-flung and much

more troubled parts of the world,
but here we are in Italy,

at the heart of the European Union,
and there is a paramilitary convoy

escorting drugs for destruction.

This is the front line
in Europe's war on drugs.

They've put the perimeter
around the van,

they've taken up armed positions.

Bloody hell.

Look at this.

One is 200...

200,000 euros.

It's just unbelievable,
there is just masses more.

I have never seen it
on this sort of scale before.

It's astonishing to see this much.

It's a miracle you have stopped
these

before it reaches Naples, London -

the cities where kids now are
stabbing each other to death,

in little gang battles,
over this drug.

Just this, this is about
£25 million worth of cocaine.

One estimate suggests
the 'Ndrangheta account for 3%

of the entire Italian economy.

So, they're filming it as well
to prove they're destroying it.

The organisation is
shockingly powerful.

It makes tens of billions of
pounds from drug smuggling.

The street price for cocaine
in Europe has stayed pretty stable,

that's coming into Europe.

More than any other Mafia group,
the 'Ndrangheta relies on blood ties

and family connections,
and the rugged interior

of this remote region of Italy.

Many of the bosses of this powerful
international organisation

live quietly in isolated villages.

We're on our way to meet
an elite police unit,

called the Cacciatore,
which means "the hunters".

Hello, buona sera...

Lieutenant Dario Corcione leads a
unit that specialises in hunting

the bosses of the 'Ndrangheta.

Bloody hell.

You get a real sense of
what they have to get up to.

Are you military, are you police?

We do both things,
so get the information to know

where the people is,
and they also have the training

and the tools to go in their
house and arrest these people.

You're a well-equipped,
surveillance, fighting,

investigative unit.

Satisfying?

Yes, really satisfying.

Heading out.

Using the cover of darkness,
Dario and his team took me

on a risky mission deep
into 'Ndrangheta territory.

It's not a territory
of Italy, you know,

it's territory of 'Ndrangheta.

There is no state there.

That's an incredible thing to hear.
They don't want any form of state.

They're trying to keep Italy out?

The territory is their territory.

The 'Ndrangheta organisation uses
murder, kidnapping and fear

to control scores of
villages like this.

Dario's men led us quietly
through backstreets to a building

once used as a safe house
by a member of the 'Ndrangheta.

Oh, my God!

This was the entrance.

So, this house was raided,
and there was a fugitive

who'd, what, hidden
under the floor here?

You can see the stairs.

So, the whole step that was here
is mounted on rails to pull it

backwards and forwards.

I mean, that is ingenious.

And this leads to the room
where actually they hide themselves.

OK, it's a little bit tricky.

Can you believe what
they've done here?

Four, four beds.

This was their life.

What's this?

Oh, my God, there's a
whole other tunnel here?

Let's go.

Totally bizarre.

Is this in the
same house we were in?

It's another house.

A network of tunnels and
bunkers extends beneath

much of this village.

I've never seen anything like this.

The warren is used by members
of 'Ndrangheta to escape

if the police are spotted
entering the village.

This is totally and utterly surreal,
but absolutely, sickeningly

ingenious, at the same time.

Tunnels lead off tunnels,
lead off chambers -

it's like Alice in
Wonderland meets Narcos.

HE LAUGHS

Are you all right, mate?

What the hell are we doing?!

Come to the Mediterranean,
go to a beach!

THEY LAUGH

What is that?

Drainage.

What, you're in the sewer?

Of course, so as soon
as they can get into here,

they can move around the whole town.

In all, the Cacciatore have
discovered 400 underground

hiding places and bunkers across
this region, some big enough

for vehicles to drive through,
allowing fugitives to evade

capture for years.

These people are fanatical.

This is a community who's done this.

How the hell do you combat an
enemy that is prepared to go

to these lengths?

In desperation, the Italian
state is using the Cacciatore.

Trained in counterinsurgency,
the squad includes veterans

from foreign battlefields
and counterterrorism

operations abroad.

Now they conduct investigations
and intense surveillance

on 'Ndrangheta targets
in their own country.

Now things get a bit trickier.

It was three in the morning,
and I was being allowed to join

one of their current operations.

So, we're being taken on a
live surveillance mission.

We need to travel without
noise, without lights.

We'll be using infrared night
vision, and we need to get to

an observation position that's
about a half-hour hike away.

WHISPERING: We are really in
the heart of Mafia territory.

My heart is really starting
to tick and bounce.

We've come out,
we're on top of the town.

This is where they are looking
at the moment for wanted

'Ndrangheta fugitives.

And why do you focus on the son
and the wife of the fugitive?

OK.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Absolutely mind-blowing, to me,
that you predicted

they would be coming back
from the football around now.

Yeah. And all of a sudden,
all the cars started appearing.

Amazing.

They wake up late in the morning.

They don't work, they don't start,
they don't do anything.

They see only one opportunity,
they see only one way to live.

Crime.

In this area, anything
out of the ordinary

gets their attention.

It's noted.

And that's how they build up
intelligence on what the hell

is going on, and how they
ultimately catch people.

The Cacciatore have
their work cut out.

The 'Ndrangheta is actually growing
in power, spreading internationally.

Listening to the experts,
this felt more like part

of a failed narco-state than the toe
of one of Europe's great nations.

In the glorious light of day,
the problems facing this part

of the Mediterranean
felt even more surreal.

It's time to head on.

I've got a train to catch.

The 'Ndrangheta's corruption
of the region is partly why

it's one of the least-known
and least-visited corners

of the whole country.

What a beautiful part
of the world this is.

Look, on that whole beach...

..two sunbathers!

I was getting off the train
at the small town of Brancaleone,

at the most southerly tip
of the Italian mainland,

but I wasn't heading far.

So, what is just about the last
thing you would expect to find

in a train station?

A turtle rescue centre, perhaps?

Buon giorno! Buon giorno!

Filippo?

Simon. Filippo. Very nice
to meet you. Tania? Ciao!

Hi, very nice to see you too.
Buon giorno.

Filippo and Tania have refashioned
this old ticket office to help

save some of the Med's most
incredible sea life.

HE GASPS

Oh, my goodness,
look at the size of you!

How has he lost so
much of his flipper?

So, how much of a problem is
plastic to the turtles, then?

All of this was in Raoul?

Oh, my God!

I haven't seen such clear
evidence of the consequences

of the modern world for marine life.

Look!

This is astonishing!

This is a packet of pasta,
for goodness' sake!

I feel your emotion.
I feel it, too, I really do.

It's needle-sharp.

Look, you big beastie!

Parrot-beak of a mouth comes open,
snaffles it straight down.

Raoul's made it to 30 years old,
breeding age,

a milestone only one in
1,000 turtles ever reach.

We are here on such a special day,

because Raoul is
about to be released.

Hold down?

OK.

So, 5065 is going to be you, Raoul.

How far did you have to look
to find turtle leggings?

Life in the Med faces
increasing threats

from pollution and overfishing.

Over the past 50 years,
marine mammals have collapsed

by almost half.

More than 90% of fish stocks
studied are overexploited.

Oh, my goodness!

Raoul's keen to go!

The Med faces a catastrophe
without more protection

and conservation like this.

Tania, are you going to miss him?

Look, his flippers
are going already!

He swims! He's going!

Aww!

SHE SOBS

Thank you!

Thank you, on behalf of everyone!

What an incredible moment that is!

I wonder where he is now?

Swimming off, hopefully
looking for a mate.

He's been in a tank
for a couple of months,

he's of breeding age
and he's probably quite horny!

Let's hope he produces
a few more offspring,

because, my God, the Med needs it.

I continued my journey,
close to the Mediterranean,

across Italy's deep south.

It's just empty, abandoned factory
after abandoned factory here.

This region, like much
of Mediterranean Europe,

from southern Spain
right through to Greece,

is enduring economic meltdown.

The global financial crisis
was followed by the Euro crisis.

People here are still suffering.

Unemployment is double
the EU average here.

Youth unemployment is
running at more than 55%.

Look at this place.

Can we stop, can we stop here?

It's one of the most
deprived areas in Europe.

This is a sad sight, isn't it?

With the locked gates here.

There must have been a couple
of hundred people working here,

and then one day they're all
turfed out of their jobs.

It's part of the tragedy,
really, of southern Italy,

I think, where there's
been generations of underinvestment

in this part of the country.

There's no better illustration
of the depths of poverty

in southern Italy than the
place I was heading to next.

In living memory, thousands
of residents in the town of Matera

were so poor they lived
in damp, dark caves.

People were living in the
caves here until the 1950s,

when the Italian Prime Minister
declared this poverty

a national scandal,
and everybody was moved out,

forcibly moved out of the
caves, into public housing,

and so a whole way of life ended.

Matera is now turning its once
shameful caves into an asset.

Many of them are being refashioned
as holiday homes and fancy hotels.

Marco? Yeah, it's me!

This is your cave. This is my...

Look at this!

It's astonishing!

This was a home?

Family share the house
with donkeys, cow, big animals.

People lived with their
animals inside the cave?

Flipping heck!

I sense that you're turning this
from something that is shameful

or embarrassing, or people
feel that way about it,

into something to be
incredibly proud of.

Exactly. We start to understand
that there is a way to live again.

We need to be proud of this.

Isn't it totally spectacular?

Something and somewhere
I won't ever forget.

I'm going to enjoy a good
night's sleep tonight,

I think.

Ahhh...

Wow!

I mean, look at this.

This is almost biblical.

Come on, now!

Matera isn't following the script
of southern Italy's decline.

Oh, look, Italian wedding!

CHEERING

Fantastic.

What a completely splendid sight!

Any wedding, anything like this,
it represents rejuvenation,

regeneration.

It's so good to see,
because too many towns and villages

in southern Italy have been
completely depopulated

in recent generations, but here,
this has got a future.

Aww!

It's beautiful!

So, we were in the toe of Italy,
now we're in the arch,

and we're heading for the heel.

And Italy's heel belongs
to the region of Puglia,

one of the country's most
picturesque and productive

farming areas.

Oh, wow!

Out there, this is the Adriatic
bit of the Mediterranean.

Pretty spectacular, eh?

Goodness, so these are all
olive trees down here.

Thousands and thousands of them.

Puglia is the absolute heart
of Italy's olive oil industry,

producing more than 50%
of the country's entire output.

I met up with a plant pathologist
called Margherita D'Amico,

who's in love with the olive tree.

Margherita, how old do
you think this one would be?

2,000 years old? Yep.

Do you ever just give them a hug?

THEY LAUGH

What about a little cuddle?
Ah, si, si, si!

But the soul of the people
of Puglia is threatened.

Olive trees here are
facing a catastrophe.

The region is ground zero
for a deadly disease,

called Xylella.

Next day, Margherita took
me to the front line.

These trees, what's
happening to them?

It's completely dry and dead.

Si.

This is so serious,
some call the disease

the olive tree Ebola.

To stop it spreading,
authorities advise farmers

to set up containment zones.

This is horrific,
this is hundreds of trees

that have been chopped down.

Government scientists say all
the trees in a 100-metre radius

of those affected
needs to be removed.

It could mean a million
or more of Puglia's olive trees

are destroyed.

Olive trees and production
around much of the Mediterranean

is now threatened.

Many locals here vehemently disagree
with the containment policy.

Margherita is among the respected
scientists who think it's a mistake.

A final decision on how to
deal with Xylella in Italy

still hasn't been taken.

I went to meet one of the
farmers whose whole livelihood

hangs in the balance.

Buona sera. Simon.

Very nice to meet you.

Chicco Minnelli is 82.

He and his wife Anna
have been farming olive trees

their whole lives.

What have you been told
about what the disease

will do to your trees?

HIS VOICE CRACKS

HE SOBS

It does sound like a
very violent response

to the situation, doesn't it?

Xylella has now also
been found in Spain.

Half the world's olive oil
is now said to be threatened.

For people around the Mediterranean,
where an enormous number

of families depend on olive trees,
this could be a total disaster.

I was headed on to the
Italian port of Brindisi.

I was catching a ferry
across the Adriatic.

Oh, this is me.

Ta-da!

Look!

It's a double bed,
for goodness' sake.

Ahh...

That's not bad.

Really looking forward
to this part of the journey

around the Mediterranean.

This boat, this ship is going
to take me across the water

to a country that was really
cut off from the outside world

until very recently.

Albania.

It's only 60 miles from Italy, but
Albania is one of the least-known

corners of the Med...

..only now emerging into the light,

after decades of dictatorship,
isolation and chaos.

Morning, Albania.

So, we've had a cup of tea,
a bit of breakfast, with Vlad.

Four what?

You're buzzing!

You've had some coffee-Viagra?

Interesting, Vlad!

It's looking pretty good, isn't it?

Look, this has all been redone
and renovated recently.

Come on.

Look at the view!

Albania!

For four decades until his death
in 1985,

Albania was in the iron
grip of Enver Hoxha,

a dictator so hard-line
he fell out with

the Soviet Union because
they weren't communist enough.

This country was so cut off,
for so long.

Life under the dictatorship
here was pretty harsh for people.

There were political prisoners,
there were assassinations

and executions, and there
was terrible poverty.

Private ownership
of cars was banned.

Even the number of chickens that
a family could have was controlled.

At one point, the secret police
here were said to have a quarter

of the population
under surveillance.

No wonder this was known
as the North Korea of Europe.

You have to know, if someone directs
the antenna in the direction

of Italy, at the time,
morning, next morning,

someone from the police would
come to take you in questions.

They kill without
judgment in the prisons.

Many political prisoners.

One of them, it was my grandfather.

Your grandfather was
a political prisoner?

He died in prison?

Yeah, he died in prison.

We yet don't know where is his body.

We don't know.

Wow.

Under Hoxha's dictatorship,
the Mediterranean became a moat.

Travel in or out of the country
was almost completely banned.

The remains of this fortress
mentality can still be seen

all over Albania.

These are a real feature of Albania.

There are anything up
to 700,000 or 800,000,

perhaps, of these bunkers
across the country.

They used the building
of these bunkers as a means

of really drawing
the country together

against an
unspecified foreign enemy.

You can get a sense of, God,
the claustrophobic paranoia

that you would feel
inside the bunker,

and inside the country,
I think, actually, as well.

So cut off, so closed.

So, this was an old Albanian Navy
base, and in the chaos that followed

the collapse of the dictatorship
here, places like this,

military facilities, were
ransacked of almost everything

they contained, but
particularly hundreds and hundreds

of thousands of weapons.

After the fall of communism
in the 1990s, the economy collapsed,

and the country
descended into chaos.

With Vlad behind the wheel,
fuelled by a few more coffees,

we headed to the far north.

Here, Albania's post-communist
anarchy had often

tragic consequences.

We're coming into an area
of the country now where life,

for many, is governed
by an ancient code.

When the rule of law collapsed
here, it left a void.

Many people turned back
to a centuries-old code,

known as the Kanun.

In the city of Shkodra,
I met up with local teacher,

Liljana Luani.

Can you tell us what is the Kanun?

So, it's an eye for an eye,
a murder should result in another,

should be avenged by another murder?

It's quite hard to comprehend,
really, because, looking around,

But it sounds like what
you're talking about is a much

more medieval aspect of the country
that perhaps is a bit more hidden

under the surface.

The Kanun is thought to have played
a part in hundreds of murders

in modern Albania.

Families find themselves
locked in so-called blood feuds

for generations.

Liljana, where are we going?

Are you saying that children get
caught up in the blood feuds,

that they can't leave their houses?

This is horrific.

If he left his house,
what could happen to him?

We're on our way to see him now.

We're not going to be able
to show you his face,

or where he lives,
but hopefully we'll be able to hear

a little bit of his story.

All right, let's get
the camera down.

Marko, are you all right
with talking to us?

How long have you been in the house?

Are we talking years?

Do you have to stay in the house,

or are you able to go
into the garden as well?

Marko, which isn't his real name,
is part of a family locked

in two blood feuds.

His father is in jail for a murder.

If Marko leaves the house,
he could be murdered in revenge

by the family of
his father's victim.

Can you talk us through your day?

What would you most
like to do in life, Marko?

Do you see a time in the future
when this blood feud could end?

Well, Marko is a very shy
young lad, not surprisingly,

given that he's basically in
almost solitary confinement.

He's a shadow of the
teenager he could be.

It's just completely obscene.

An adult commits a crime, and
a child can be killed for it?

What sort of place does this have
in a country that's in talks

to join the European Union,
for goodness' sake?

It's completely heartbreaking,
it really is.

Prison.

Life around the Mediterranean
was proving much more extreme

than I'd ever expected.

As I neared the end of the
first part of my journey,

I headed back towards
Albania's coast.

Albania has perhaps the
greatest system of wetlands

in the entire Mediterranean.

It's an absolutely crucial rest
stop for birds that are crossing

the Mediterranean Sea.

The largest and most important
of these coastal lagoons

is Karavasta National Park.

Look at this!

It is completely enormous!

A critical habitat for an
incredible 250 species of birds,

many of them threatened by
hunting around the Mediterranean.

I met up with a heroic
conservationist called Ardian Koci,

the park's director.

Morning!

Pelicans? You have
pelicans in the park?

Wow!

What a beautiful creature.

To see something that large
in flight is a real treasure.

Oh, my goodness!

It's a whole island of pelicans.

Brilliant!

What do you love about them?

They're really crammed onto
their little islands there,

but they seem to get on OK.

They share parental responsibility?

Around the Mediterranean...

Pelican incoming!

..tens, possibly hundreds of
millions of birds are hunted

every year. In Egypt and Lebanon,

birds are slaughtered
in their millions.

Even inside the European Union,
where nature laws should protect

vulnerable species, it's a scandal.

Italy is one of the worst offenders.

In Albania, guns are
in plentiful supply,

and hunting was a huge threat,
but then in 2014, the government

here set an example to the rest
of the Mediterranean and banned

outright all hunting.

What was life like here
before the hunting ban?

How important was the ban?

They tried to bribe you?

Very brave, and
that's what it takes.

Here, OK?

OK.

What's the reason for
putting the buoys out?

So, we are protecting the pelicans.

OK. OK?

Same on here.

Here?

The biggest battle to safeguard
these wetlands may still lie ahead.

Albania, naturally enough,
wants a slice of the Med's massive

tourist industry, with
all the investment and jobs

that go with it.

There is a plan for a colossal
resort to be built here,

on a scale rarely seen
around the Mediterranean.

It would start roughly ten
miles in that direction...

..and it will completely
transform the national park.

The future of Karavasta National
Park is still to be decided,

but there is hope.

With its hunting ban,
Albania has already shown

it can take tough decisions to
protect the environment,

and the wonder of the Mediterranean.

So, this is the end of
the first part of my journey

around the Mediterranean.

Next time, I'll be starting
in Cyprus, and heading on to Lebanon

and the Middle East.

I'll see the Med
like never before...

That's not where we're you going?

Yes, we are going there.

..and discover a region enduring
conflict and division.

So, it's a fully active,
combat-ready patrol? Yeah.

Look at the barrier
that encircles Gaza.