Given Eritrea’s turbulent history, including a 30-year independence war until 1991 followed by a 1998-2000 border conflict with Ethiopia, tourism remains underdeveloped.

Those who make it — among them, plenty of Italians exploring their former African colony — are stunned by Asmara, especially its architecture.

FRIDAY

6 p.m. Join the locals in a “passeggiata”, or stroll, down Harnet (Liberation) Avenue, the wide main street where residents gather in the early evening to meet and greet. With its pavement cafes and extraordinary buildings from the Italian colonial era — art deco to neo-classical — you feel you are in the Mediterranean, rather than Africa.

Older Eritreans will greet you in Italian, the young in English. You can have no fear of being robbed.

8 p.m. Choose from an array of restaurants round the small city to enjoy a traditional meal of “injera”, a spongy pancake served on a tray with stew on top. If you are less adventurous, the menu will have plenty of pasta dishes, too. As you go home, observe soldiers on street corners checking the papers of the residents in a sign of Asmara’s stricter undertones.

12 p.m. Before you go to sleep, listen to the midnight church bells in the distance, breaking the silence in this tranquil city of half a million people on a plateau 2,500 feet

up from the Red Sea coast. Remember half of the Eritrean population is Muslim, so get ready to be awakened by the call to prayer! 

SATURDAY

6 a.m. Feeling energetic? Before the heat comes, take a jog or a walk up one of the hills around Asmara. The views of the city are stunning — only a couple of post-independence high-rises spoil an otherwise early 20th-century panorama, dotted with mosques and a couple of cathedrals. Looking the other way across the countryside, women in white shrouds begin daily chores while boys with sticks take sheep and goats out in almost biblical landscapes. Mountains disappear into a misty distance. Wave at the soldiers on guard on the hilltops in case they think you’re up to no good.

10 a.m. If invited by local hosts, join them in a coffee ceremony. The bean was discovered centuries ago by a monk not far away in north Ethiopia, and it is in this part of the world that they really know how to enjoy coffee. Watch the beans being washed and roasted as incense is burned before boiling. It might take an hour and the coffee will be strong.

1 p.m. Take some time at lunch to talk to Eritreans about their history. The oldest will remember the Italian occupation, the British defeat of Benito Mussolini’s troops in 1941, then the ever-controversial federation with Ethiopia. All Eritreans will talk about the 30-year “struggle” for independence that ended in 1991 — some still carry the physical scars: a missing limb, a bullet lodged in the ribs — and has defined their modern history. Present-day politics are a sensitive subject — President Isaias Afwerki was a successful guerrilla leader and initially praised by the West. He is now heavily criticised by human rights groups.

3 p.m. Spend a couple of hours walking around the city to enjoy its Italian-era architecture. Don’t miss the plane-shaped futurist “Fiat Tagliero” service station on the roundabout of Sematat Avenue. Its concrete wings are so long nobody believed they would stay up when wooden struts were pulled away at its inauguration in 1938, but it’s still standing. At the Education Ministry on Harnet Avenue, which used to be the Fascist Party headquarters, turn your head to the left and see how the building’s jagged roof spells an “F”.

5 p.m. English Premier League football is an obsession throughout Africa. Head to the Mocambo bar to join several hundred young Eritreans whistling and shouting as they watch their favorite teams live — different matches on different screens.

8 p.m. Go for pre-dinner drinks to the trendy Zara bar, full of young Eritreans. It’s next to Sandal Square, so-called because of a monument to the independence war shaped like the fighters’ simple footwear. The sandal structure has gone for repair at the moment — as has beer, because of a shortage of ingredients.

SUNDAY

8 a.m. Have breakfast on the courtyard terrace of the elegant Albergo Italia, Asmara’s first hotel, built in 1899.

9 a.m. Take the two-hour drive down the mountains to Massawa port on the Red Sea. Don’t forget to get a travel permit first from the tourist office. The hairpin bends afford dramatic views — and churn the stomach.

1 p.m. Enjoy freshly caught fish in the rundown but atmospheric old town of Massawa, whose crumbling architecture reflects more of an Arab influence.

2 p.m. Take a boat to nearby Green Island for snorkeling.

7 p.m. Back safely in Asmara, freshen up at Asmara Sweet cafe with a juice or tea. Given that the city has become a refuge for exiled rebels from the region — notably Darfur guerrillas and Somali Islamists — you may find the men on the next table are interesting to chat to.

(Reporting by Andrew Cawthorne and Jack Kimball, editing by Paul Casciato)