I explored Europe’s ‘least-visited’ country – with unrecognised states and underground wine cities

Just 525,100 tourists visited in 2025 (Picture: Alice Murphy)

Soviet relics, an underground wine city, and a self-ruling region that feels frozen in time.

This is what awaits in Moldova, a tiny country sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine, consistently ranked as the least-visited in Europe.

It was also dubbed the world’s unhappiest place in a bestselling book in 2008.

But today, Moldova is better known for an authenticity that is vanishing elsewhere on the continent.

I spent four days there to see what it’s all about.

Chișinău:...