Lasha Jgenti

I grew up on one of the merchant streets in old Batumi, in a building not far from where the port used to unload most of the region's trade. On camera I keep to the older grid of streets rather than the newer boulevard, since the ironwork balconies and carved doorways there tell an older version of the city's story. I also take people up to the Holy Trinity Cathedral on the hill above town, a modern building with an unusually large interior. I keep the pace measured and explain what has genuinely survived from the nineteenth century rather than what has been rebuilt.