The first photo I have on my phone's roll from the trip to Georgia is of a khachapuri. The second, of a khinkali. Two names that will quickly integrate into your vocabulary if you visit this corner of the Caucasus; there can't be many restaurants whose menus don't offer the two great emblems of this small country's gastronomy. Georgian cuisine, which used to be considered the best in the Soviet Union, is one of the country's heritages and a key element of its identity. Always with the permission of wine, the true reason for Georgians' pride, who claim to be its inventors. Georgia is a gastronomic and wine jewel; a treasure (still quite preserved and untamed) for lovers of nature and mountaineering; a must for fans of Soviet architecture and urbex. The "beautiful homeland of Stalin", as American journalist Robert D. Kaplan called it in The Revenge of Geography, enjoys (or suffers) a key strategic position, where Europe and Asia meet; "where Russia ends and the Middle East begins", as Kaplan summarizes in the book, which is a good resource for imagining what this turbulent area of the world was like during the post-Soviet chaos. Georgia has a colossal natural border to the north: the majestic peaks of the Greater Caucasus, with Russia on the other side. To the west, the Black Sea; to the south, Turkey and Armenia, and to the east, Azerbaijan.

As every Saturday, at eight in the evening, nearly a thousand people have gathered in Avlabari Square, near the center of the Georgian capital. The protest atmosphere, with a profusion of national flags and anti-government slogans, and their demands are not very different from those of other countries suffering an authoritarian drift in the current global populist wave.

For a year now, Tbilisi's central Rustaveli Avenue has become the stage for resistance in Georgia every night. Waving Georgian and European Union flags, critics of the government led by the Georgian Dream party have demonstrated continuously in front of Parliament since November 28th of last year, when the last parliamentary elections were held. considered a fraud by the country's opposition and much of the international communitySince then, repression against dissent has intensified, to the point that all but two opposition party leaders are imprisoned; one of them is under investigation and lives in exile. Furthermore, the government has begun the process of outlawing the three main rival parties.