Heritage Management that is both Sensitive and Innovative

Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar welcomes the MEPA Board’s approval of the permits for the Cittadella Masterplan and Visitors’ Centre, dealing with the restoration, upgrading and rehabilitation of Gozo’s unique citadel. The project’s holistic and sophisticated treatment of the whole area shows that a great deal of thought has gone into these plans which will partly close the 1950s arch in the bastions and reinstate the original entrance to the citadel, which many visitors to the Cittadella are not even aware of. The positioning of the visitors’ centre below the bastions also valorises another unknown feature of the fortifications, as the sally-port or hidden exit within the bastions will be used as an access from the visitors’ centre to the upper level of the fortified structure.

The Cittadella Masterplan will provide improved access to the bastions and make better use of some of the buildings within the citadel. FAA particularly welcomes the re-use of the enormous old water reservoirs just beneath the citadel’s outer walls which in the 90s were risking demolition. The innovative use of these reservoirs as a non-intrusive visitors’ centre is an excellent example of rehabilitation of an old structure.  While being modern in treatment, this conversion does not jar with the surroundings and will greatly increase our appreciation of the Cittadella’s past role, as well as attracting many more tourists to this historic site.  While it is appreciated that dismantling the flank of the reservoir that was attached to the bastions is necessary to restore a clear view of the bastion-line, FAA is gratified that our request to retain the first and last of the arches as a memory of the past structure is being favourably considered.

Part of the visitors’ centre/reservoir will form part of a water heritage trail to highlight the importance of the perched aquifer that lies just beneath the Cittadella which was the reason why this hill was chosen as an ideal defensive post centuries ago. The water trail will focus on traditional systems of water conservation in wells and even in a cavern, which will link the heritage theme with the Eco-Gozo sustainability concept. The whole Cittadella project is to be monitored by archaeologists from MEPA’s Heritage Protection Unit and the Superintendance of Cultural Heritage

This Masterplan which has received input from many sources over a number of years proves that proper planning that is sensitive to the heritage context, along with extensive consultation with local groups, has resulted in a rehabilitation project which should meet every sector’s requirements and approval.

Photo: Cathedral, Gozo, within Cittadella.  Courtesy: Leslie Vella.

“This was truly an amazing experience and came purely by chance as I couldn’t sleep. The sunrise and most especially conversing with the salt gatherers was just great.” (Mario George Vella)

Steve & the DIY estate agent’s story

What, selling online, myself, directly? Are you kidding? It is no surprise considering the property market today, many would answer “yes” to these questions.  One would have to be living literally under a rock not to realise that the state of the European and world economy has negatively impacted a homeowner’s ability to sell. Homes are staying on the market considerably longer, particularly old stone homes here in Malta and Gozo.

My story started in Gozo when the enthusiastic buyer of my 3 bedroom farmhouse with pool could not honour their contract to purchase and withdrew from the agreed sale; other potential buyers seemed to suddenly disappear too.  If you ask the property agents (and I have) they will tell you that there are very few buyers out there.

Some that are out there tend to be looking for bargains, hovering above us like vultures ready to pounce on the desperate to sell, offering unrealistic prices. I heard of one property developer offering a desperate tearful seller no more than the value of the land that there beautiful house stood on. There are also of course a few genuine and honourable buyers out there.

So, how can I get the few genuine honest buyers out there through my front door?

We all know social media is playing a bigger part in our lives than ever and some would say it can move mountains, but can it sell houses on the Maltese Islands?

Information movement across social media channels is almost faster than the speed of light. When it comes to buying property, the first place people visit are local agents and property websites, but will that become old hat if the Twitter verse, Facebook chat and Blogerati (is that a word?) take over?

I know for sure that houses have been sold in the United States and UK using social media.  So, with a targeted campaign using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, online partners like Maltainsideout, the recently rolled out Google+ and my blog acting as my online brochure, I aim to give it a go.

The first thing I need is an incentive for my many thousands of prospective scouts, typically here on the Maltese Islands if a private individual were to find a buyer for a property they would be offered a 1% reward. I need a bigger incentive to enable my property to stand out, so I am offering a €10,000 reward, a figure that reflects more than 3% of the €325,000 asking price; a very generous reward I feel.

When selling anything product or service, word-of-mouth promotion is essential, particularly in a small island community like Malta and Gozo, so the large reward should set tongues wagging, I hope.  As a property agent told me “it’s all about getting the maximum number of potential buyers through your front door to view the property;  the more potential buyers that see the property the sooner you will sell it”.  Which is plain common sense.

What is my D-I-Y strategy to sales? 

Twitter – regular tweets including details about property, Gozo, Malta, Old Farmhouses and anything related. I am careful to make my tweets interesting and engaging, always including a link to my blog describing the farmhouse. I am careful not to bombard readers with a continuous stream of “buy my house” as this will simply alienate my followers. I currently have more than 350 followers on twitter and this is growing at a rate of around 10 a day. Some of my tweets are re-tweeted which helps spread the word, I have created the Twitter #Reward€10000 hash tag to accompany the relevant tweets. (If you Google hash tag a plethora of explanations will follow if you are not familiar with the term).

Facebook – advertising, those tiny little adds that appear on the right of your Facebook page. Not expensive (you decide how much you spend) and you can target who sees your add by location, sex, age, country and more.

Hand-outs – I had 100 colour postcards printed for very little more than the cost of delivery. I give these to family, friends, local bars shops and anyone that shows an interest.

Blog – The blog for the farmhouse took me a couple of hours to create.

Partnering – online buddies with synergy; ie. good  content generating good traffic and attracting the right target audience. Maltainsideout is giving me valuable inbound marketing links,  screen ‘real estate’ and your eyeballs.

My goal is to have the property sold by 30th November 2011. I have been actively marketing the property via social media for 4 weeks now, I have doubled the number of enquiries received compared to those from property agents in the same time, I am already taking appointments for viewings.

So is social media the next property buying revolution? I hope so. Oh, almost forgot: here’s the plug….
The property is a three bedroom, two bathroom fully-restored farmhouse with swimming pool on the beautiful Island of Gozo.  Click here for more info, and do say you came via Maltainsideout!

The constant crossing of the water

The channel between Malta and Gozo is just 5 kms wide, and it takes less than 25 minutes for the ferry to cross from one island to the next. And yet, it’s one of the most evocative journeys we are likely to make in our lifetime – perhaps the first to be burnt into our memory banks.

No matter how many times we’ve made the crossing, no matter the season, we are all children when the ferry is about to head out of Cirkewwa, when it is hovering past the entrance to the Blue Lagoon in Comino, when it is approaching Mgarr.

Catching the ferry is part of our vernacular – whether you just visit ‘the other island’ a couple of times a year, or you’re part of that hardy, almost mythical tribe from the sister island of Gozo that braves the daily crossing. You must know someone like this: they arrive slightly dishevelled for a morning meeting, do nervous clock-watching in the afternoons, and spend weekends in what is still the greener, softer of our three islands.

The crossing is a gentle assault to our senses. For we all have snapshots in our head from our time on the ferry.

Just focus: you can feel the wind in your hair, taste that ice-cream shared on a slatted bench, remember a snatched conversation. Laughter. Twinkling lights. And then the descent – to the sickly sweet smell of gasoline in the hold, as you struggle to get into a car, bending car mirrors, or shuffle out as a foot-passenger. Knowing that at some stage, the nose-cone will open and you, too, will drive or walk out. And transit – to the other island, to what’s next.

Photo: Mario George Vella

Pierre J. Mejlak, in a carriage somewhere between Gozo and Brussels.

Pierre J. Mejlak is one of Malta’s finest young writers. He has published books for children, adaptations, a novel – which has been turned into a TV series – and a critically acclaimed collection of short stories. In the process, he’s won a Malta Literary Prize, two National Book Awards and the Sea of Words European Short Story Award. Pierre’s next project is a collection of short stories for adults, to be published by Merlin in 2011. Sneak previews have already described it as ‘powerful and exquisite.’

I was brought up in the neighbouring Gozitan villages of Qala and Nadur in the eighties. They’re a stone’s throw away from each other but there are differences. To start with, there’s Nadur – a proud little town perched on a hill. Most of its people are returned migrants, who, for some years, enjoyed an unrivalled purchasing power in Gozo, earning them the title of New Yorkers. The people of Qala are somehow simpler and more humble. Even their choice of patron saints – Church pillars St Peter and St Paul on one side and carpenter St Joseph on the other, must say something about both peoples.

A group of young men from Qala once went to a crossroad between both villages and sprayed ‘New York’ with an arrow pointing to the road leading to Nadur. I can imagine them going back home that night, thrilled at their wit, and convinced that the people of Nadur would remove every trace of their opus by morning. Instead, morning came and ‘New York’ was still there, but with another word sprayed a few metres away with an arrow pointing at the opposite direction. Calcutta.

I’m fond of both villages. They balance each other and I feel at home in both. No day in Gozo would be complete without a stop at Zeppi’s Pub (formerly known as Tal-Baharru) on Qala Square and, in summer, a swim at as yet-unspoilt Hondoq ir-Rummien. Rhythms in both villages are still slow and lazy and everything seems like it will never change. Some of my stories are set in these villages, including ‘Is-sajf tad-89’ (the summer of 89), ‘Talb’ (prayers), ‘Il-hofra’ (the hole), ‘Mill-gholi tas-sema’ (from high up in the sky) and ‘Jacqueline’.

I lived in Qala until I was eight. My family managed the Nationalist Party club, where a handful of men used to meet every night, after dinner, to talk about everything but mainly politics. It was from my favourite spot in that bar – underneath the billiards’ table – that I learnt to observe. My memories of those years are all gathered in my short story ‘Dar ix-Xoghol’, which was published in my first anthology of short stories for adults, Qed Nistenniek Niezla max-Xita (I’m waiting for you to fall with the rain).

People are a constant source of fascination and curiosity. I think up stories about my neighbours and then end up dodging them, in case they reveal something that will contradict my fictions about them. I like to observe people – on my way to work each morning, at a restaurant, on a plane or at the cinema. I usually write when I’m alone, ideally at home or in a room without too many distractions. A story can develop from a little thing that inspires me – a face in a crowd, a song that rekindles a memory, something that strikes me while I’m stuck in a traffic jam. Of course there’s a bit of me in every story. But, usually, it’s just a little bit.

I started writing when I was young – around twelve or thirteen. Call it the vanity of seeing your name in a school magazine. Writing made me feel comfortable in my own skin. I realised early on, that I was no good at mathematics, or would ever make it as a scientist. School gives you an early barometer for what you’re cut out to do.

When I was thirteen, I decided to work through summer to secure some financial independence. The only place that was safe for a child to moonlight was Comino – the authorities went easy on spot-checks there, back then. I spent weeks carrying cutlery from the dish-washer to the restaurant, and – often – kept a safe distance away from the guests. I remember being on the boat, in the early hours of one morning, getting drenched with spray and something snapped. It was then I decided I should write. I spent the rest of the summer writing a mildly embarrassing story: after a few years and some major editing, it became my first published book.

At 21, following my final University exam and hungry for experience, I left Gozo to work for the European Union’s publishing arm in Luxembourg. I spent a few months there before moving to more cosmopolitan Brussels. That’s where I found my voice and where I started writing for real. It’s one thing visiting a place on holiday and hoping for inspiration – quite another living somewhere foreign without thinking of having to leave. Feeling part of a larger world is a wonderful sensation.

I think becoming part of the EU was one of the most exciting things to happen to anyone of my generation. Getting in from the main door is something that we have started to take for granted. I come from a family of returned migrants. My parents met in New York, some of my relatives are still there. So I grew up tuned to their stories of grafting to make ends meet in a strange city … struggling to find networks, trying to find a way of surviving and not getting kicked out. Nowadays, young people in Malta know they always have an exit route to another life.

I’ve been back in Malta for just over a year and I’ve had to renegotiate how I write. I think that in a small place like this, it’s as easy to get consumed by the idea of trying to make a difference as by the anger of not being able to. It’s not always possible to detach oneself and disengage from the trivial stuff of a small island. To feel part of a larger world, on Saturdays I buy La Repubblica or Le Monde and skim through it in a café in Valletta.

My long pit stop in Malta is a sabbatical of sorts – definitely not a working holiday. I felt it was time to let my country surprise me, to see what it feels like to live in its capital city and to keep looking for where home really is.

For more information visit Pierre’s website.

Photo: Julia Turlejska

Unlocking the Secrets of Gozo: the Old Prison, Cittadella, where Grand Master Jean de la Valette was once imprisoned.

I spent last weekend in Gozo. It’s the first time I’ve stayed a night there in years. I’ve always just day tripped, usually taking guests for a quick tour doing the sights like any guide. One of Gozo’s attractions is the chance to stay in an old farmhouse which the island specialises in as accommodation. I live in one in Malta, so I have less urge to island hop for that reason.

But shame on me…

Because over nighting in Gozo is far more than staying in an old stone place. Two days and a night in Gozo give you a totally different perspective on this micro island; one that day trippers can never savour as they rush for the ferry at sundown. Gozo is, quite simply, different – a fact which has caused much sparring between the two inhabited Maltese Islands.

Maltese will often pop to Gozo for both summer and winter weekend breaks, especially at certain times of year such as Carnival in February and the summer shutdown week around the Santa Marija public holiday on 15th August. But day tripping tourists among you might want to linger longer once you’ve scanned my main reasons to stay in and not speed around Gozo.

Slowing down
That Gozo moves at a far slower pace is true. It is a cliche’ in some ways as it always billed as a more rural, quieter sister island to Malta. If you are en masse on a day trip you never quite get to feel the vibe of Gozo. I have to say it took me a whole day to not get wound up by ‘slow’ but to come to appreciate it as de-stressing, not stress inducing. It is the place not to take any Wi-Fi device, forget work, escape and just take life around you at face value.

Weird and Wonderful Land and Seacapes
It might be 20 minutes from Malta, but Gozo has a landscape all its own. It is dominated by steep-sided plateau. Some are topped by landmarks – Cittadella just above the chief town, Rabat (Victoria); the Ta’ Giordan Lighthouse or the village of Zebbug with its church rising high and proud. Then you’ve coastlines like that at Dwerja with the Azure Window and Fungus Rock, or the weather worn shapes on the coast at Qbajjer. You can of course rush around in a mini bus and see all in a day. But nothing beats eating out watching their contours change with the onset of dusk and the rise of the moon. If you do stay and eat in the evening when you’re on a day trip, you’re still clock watching for that ferry back to Malta and never quite in a slow enough lane to really enjoy the play of light on the scenery.

Dining Out
Of course you get to eat out on a day trip, but it’s nice to have time to discover somewhere new and pop back to favourite places over a few days in Gozo. On a day trip you are unlikely to discover, for instance, one of Gozo’s food icons, Maxokk’s pizzas in Nadur. There are some weird places to come across too, like the ‘Death Bar’, Tal Mewta, in the street to the right of St George’s church in Rabat. I didn’t see it open this time, but it used to have some old men boozing in it when I last went.

A Gozo insider did a good round up of where to eat in Gozo as the day ebbs and flows. We bumped into him on his regular Sunday walk in Rabat in St George’s Square and he reeled off details of a great value feast he’d had at Beppe’s in Marsalforn, and a Sicilian restaurant in Mgarr. We dined at Otters, also in Marsalforn. It used to be a humble beer and pizza place but has turned into a relaxed wine bar come restaurant since I last visited. It has fantastic seafood, a good wine list and an al fresco (very al fresco in gale force 5 last night) terrace where we watched waves crash below us. Our other find this weekend was Rangers Bar in Gharb. It has to-die-for views from the roof of Ta’ Pinu church and serves homely, hearty portions of family food – pizzas, pasta, fish ‘n’ chips – at amazing value. It’s an unpretentious place that attracts tourist families dining early (like us!). For an unbiased review of Rangers from an overseas visitor, click here.

Doing nothing in particular
Rushing around on a day trip is an anathema to those who’ve discovered Gozo. If you stay over, you can ‘do the sights’, one or two perhaps each morning, then spend the rest of your time doing absolutely nothing that requires brain or brawn. A family I know leave Malta most Friday nights or Saturday mornings for their weekend house in Gozo, returning Sunday evening. They do take computers but say Gozo forces them to have more relaxed quality, family time. They just can’t resist its wind-down feel. If you’re on holiday in Malta, you might think you’re already winding down. But if you aren’t stuck on a package deal, try a night in Gozo and you’ll see what relaxing is all about. Malta will feel so urban and busy when you return.

Gozo's coastline, a snorkeler's paradise.

We’ll do a list of must-sees in Gozo and places to swim in another article. I find the pull of Gozo is to not see much and just relax quite frankly!

Photo: Hondoq ir Rumien, Leslie Vella.

The signs are that Gozo is the place to head for dental treatment these days!

Malta has quietly been establishing itself as a medical tourism destination in recent years. The islands can claim a long and veritable history in medicine from the time of the Knights of St John to their role as ‘nurse of the Mediterranean’ in World War II.

Despite the Sterling-Euro exchange rate of the past year or so, Malta still seems to be attracting medical tourists. Its pull is not only its value-for-money, professional medical and dental treatment but also its climate, culture, English-speaking medical staff and relative ease of access from European cities.

For Britons, facing a lack of NHS dentists and exorbitant rates for ‘going private’, a trip here makes sense. For some, it’s almost a home from home. At the tail end of last year, journalist Jennifer Pulling joined them, taking the dental tourism trail to Gozo, Malta’s small sister island.

Here, she describes her ‘dental Odyssey’ on Calypso’s Isle.

It actually all began the Christmas before last. I wanted to escape the frantic shopping fest and plumped for Gozo. I basked in warm sunshine, sat in deserted village squares and discovered the mix of sacred and pagan in the island’s folk lore and myth. But even here I couldn’t escape the nagging anxiety about my teeth. As I walked across the salt pans on Christmas Day, I told myself I would not let another year pass without resolving it. I wasn’t sure how as I knew that I could never afford the verging on £20,000 my UK dentist was asking.

The answer came out of the blue. One evening, I opened the local Yellow Pages and looked up dentists. The following day I stood in a telephone box in Victoria making a call to a dental clinic. A few days later I flew home with all the literature.

Never one to make decisions swiftly, it took me almost a year to find the courage to go for it. In the meantime, the enormity of the problem and the lengths Brits go to solve it surprised me.

Some 70,000 Britons went outside the country for health care in 2007, a figure which was expected to rise to 200,000 by 2010. Out of a sample of 650 UK health tourists, savings on treatment cost accounted for 92% of the reasons for having treatment done abroad. 97% of medical tourists said they would ‘definitely go abroad for medical treatment again’. The ex-UK medical tourism market is currently worth £375 million. Dentistry is a particularly good example, due to the UK’s shortage of National Health dentists.

I’m a journalist who goes for research in a big way. The Google machine was both a blessing and a curse, taking up hours of my time as I ploughed through websites on dentistry abroad. The British Dental Association made gloomy reading as it only pointed out the pitfalls: number of visits required, qualifications and experience to check, and darkest of all, what does one do if things go wrong.

In my capacity as a journalist, I got the chance to check out a Bulgarian clinic, but the young age of the dentist there, and the clinic’s rather austere atmosphere despite its professional manner somewhat dissuaded me from taking that route. So I returned to Malta to combine a holiday with a trip to that Gozitan clinic. It was incredibly hot and the long bus journeys coupled with ferry crossings were exhausting. But from the moment I stepped into the practice I felt I had come home.

[eds. note: Jennifer was mid-way in her treatment writing this but was impressed with the care, attention to detail, time and professionalism she has received at the Gozitan clinic she chose.]

The confidence in knowing I am now on the road to correcting my teeth has over spilled into other areas. I have no qualms about returning to begin on the next phase, the implant procedure I need. In fact I can’t wait.

Perhaps I won’t have absolutely perfect teeth. There have been far too many years of my own and some UK dentists insouciance…..but I’ll be able to talk, laugh and eat with confidence. I have taken the step in time. I dipped into my savings and had the initiative to take myself to Gozo. What of those who can do neither and must suffer broken, painful and missing teeth for the rest of their lives?

I look back on that call I made from a Gozitan telephone box; it was one of the best things I’ve ever done.

Jennifer was treated at the Savina Dental Clinic, Gozo.

Photo: Therese Debono

A Marinara Moment: Gozo's food at its best

One of the best things about eating out in Gozo is the service. Generally it’s friendly (if they know you, it’s first name basis pretty quickly), most times it’s quick and it certainly isn’t ITS’ (Malta’s Institute of Tourism Studies ‘cum chef school’) cookie-cutter. In fact, it’s often enough quirky, which adds to the enjoyment, unless you’re some up-tight nuevo-yuppy who thinks he’s worthy of silver service and has this need to send back the first couple of bottles because they’re, you know, not quite the thing.

Hey, fool, if it’s got alcohol in it and it ain’t corked, you don’t get to send it back: next time, choose something you like.

So, where to go when you’re up North and peckish? Time for a coffee or lunch: where do I point the wheels?

You want somewhere smart? OK, if you must, you must, though this is Gozo after all, so chill an’all that, so there’s Tmun, Victoria and Ta’ Frenc for smart dining, right up there amongst the best. Me? I tend towards the more casual end of the spectrum, so close to home, there’s Oleander in Xaghra Square – a leisurely Sunday lunch on one of the outside tables; if the weather’s friendly, it’s as close to bliss as you can get legally.

Don’t jump down my throat, but you can also have fun in Marsalforn, the Bugibba-in-the-North disadvantages notwithstanding. Il-Pulena, in the Menqa, serves up seriously good pizza and other basic stuff, and as far as I’m concerned, a weekday lunch in early spring is the best reason for playing hooky from the real world.

Just back along the harbour-front, towards what must be the least busy Police Station in the country (in winter, anyway) is the Calypso Hotel, where you get a good coffee and can relax a morning while the missus is off getting her hair done or whatever it is people do on a Saturday morning. Alternatively, there’s it-Tokk, in Rabat, with something like six coffee shops intemingling, amongst them the original Jubilee, and the Central, where the Marocchino is luxurious.

After your siesta, which is de rigeur, you’ll need a coffee to clear the cobwebs and, a bit later (you don’t want anyone thinking you’re too fond of a drop) a g&t or something on those lines, to set you up for the evening. Here’s where somewhere like Xlendi comes into the picture – if you can bag a table at the edge, where the beach wall serves as an excellent foot-rest, you’re chilling with the best of them. When you get hungry, walk (yes, walk) to La Terrazza, where “location, location, location” isn’t used to detract from the obligation to provide excellent pizza (you’ve noticed I like pizza?)

It’s the dinner hour, so off you go: Tatita’s in San Lawrenz or Tmun, down the other end of the island in Mgarr (yes, there are two Tmuns) will hit the spot, as will Wileg in Qala or Maji in Rabat.

So there you go, a few places to satisfy the inner man – they’re not the only ones available in Gozo, by a long shot and I’ve probably left a few out.

Ggantija temple, the Xaghra tourists see. But locals know there's more to the place.

I’ve lived in Xaghra, off and on, for about three years now. When I say “lived”, it’s more weekended, a word that Word says doesn’t exist, but it does, because I do it.

We bought a flat here as an occasional weekend place, thinking we wouldn’t be here that often, say once a month and probably not in summer anyway. Buzz, wrong answer, the decompression factor kicked in and we head up here as soon as possible when the weekend looms and linger here as much as possible when it starts retreating. So weekending is more half-weeking, sometimes, though the weekend is normally involved somewhere.

Which is not to say that we’ve abandoned our “normal” home in Malta, just that our son now has even more freedom than when we’re around. It’s an arrangement that works.

Xaghra, as you probably know, but be patient for the benefit of the non-familiar, is a village that sprawls over some five ridges and a relatively large plateau between them pretty much in the centre of Gozo.
We’re virtually on the southern end of the most north-north-western finger (confused? That’s the idea, surprise visitors are not part of the decompression process) which means we get a view of the setting sun over 180 degrees of the island – we’re as far from the sea as it’s possible to be in Gozo, which is actually about 10 minutes, but we’ve swum about five times over the last three years, so it’s no great hardship.

Why Xaghra? Coincidence, really, and it’s too long a story to go into anyway, but it’s turned out to be a pretty good place to be. If you want to get to Rabat, which is what we call Victoria, it’s a three minute slalom down the Sellum (you head to the cemetery and hope the brakes work); if you want to get to Bugibba-in-the-North (Marsalforn) it’s five minute the other way; and if you want to get to the ferry, you can do it (I have) in seven minutes and still catch the trip.

Everywhere else you want to be in Gozo is in equally easy reach, especially if you avoid Racecourse Street on Saturday morning (it’s full of Maltese tourists doing the retail-therapy thing), which is not difficult if you’ve a sense of direction slightly better than that of a dead pigeon.

You want the papers? Head to Joe Cini’s petrol-station, they’re usually there by 8.00. Did I say petrol-station? Aladdin’s Cave, more like, but that’s a symptom of many retail outlets in Gozo. Trot along to Victor’s to rent a DVD and you’ll see what I mean – it’s in front of Iz-Zajbra, where the pizza is cheap and not bad at all.
Victory Square, which is what downtown Xaghra is known as (and where Cini’s is) has no less than six eating and drinking places, two of which are Daniel’s Oleander and DVenue (check out the art at the latter and forgive my vested interest, says he grinning sheepishly) and all of which are pretty good fun. Check out Diamond Jubilee for a good dose of Gozo Chic, it’s worth it, especially on Sunday morning.

All other needs are catered for in Xaghra: there’s a post-office (queues not an issue) a couple of pharmacies, many grocers (ours is St Joseph) a gun-shop (never been there, since I’m not precisely a pro-hunting guy) and a number of pet-shops and hardware stores. Cultural needs are catered for by a three minute roll down the Sellum (see above) with two opera houses (four performances a year; this isn’t Milan) and a cinema. The large banks maintain some sort of presence, though I suspect the main business is transacted in Rabat. Hint, though: if you need an ATM, head to Nadur, you can park just next to it.

You’re also in touch with the past here – stroll around aimlessly and you’ll miss most things (except for Ggantija, you’d have to be blind to miss the tourist throngs) but there’s a rather splendid little volume – “Archaeological Walks on Gozo” (by Lenie Reedijk, which explains why she writes “on” rather than “in”, I suppose) which will guide you neatly to the lesser known spots which are worth a look.

So that’s it, my Xaghra. It’s not actually mine, but it’s the one I’ve got to know, and it’s a good place to live.

Photo: Peuplier