The land of a thousand towers and glacers, the land of centenarians, the last Middle Ages of Europe… these are just some of numerous other poetic fitting notions to refer to the Upper Svaneti, the high-mountain region in the northwest of Georgia.

Bound by the rugged mountain chains that are up to five thousand metres high, in the narrow valley of the Inguri River, this cultural isle has survived in its hundreds-year-long isolation.The historical roots of Svaneti's inhabitants stem supposedly from a Sumerian tribe…