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.

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Even when they swim like fish, you need to be vigilant

This article is aimed at giving you advice for a happy, safe holiday with kids on, in and around water in Malta this summer. Do take a moment to browse down. We’re rather like the flight attendant reminding you to listen to those safety instructions even if you’re a frequent flyer (or swimmer… in our case)!

Holidays are for relaxation, and nowhere more so than in Malta which promotes itself on its relaxed Mediterranean lifestyle. However, as parents we can’t really relax when water and kids mix because…

Swimming pools pose the greatest risk of death and injury to children in a home or holiday setting. More British children drown on holiday abroad than in Britain itself, most of them in swimming pools. And if you take recent statistics from Algarve (Spain) and Greece, most drownings of young children are in pools, not the sea, despite the unpredictability of the sea and the crowds that beaches pull.

There is good news in all this though – research shows that most swimming pool drownings are preventable.

Swimming Pools & the Law
In 2008, a new European Union standard relating to the design and operation of swimming pools came into effect. It is a standard only, but both France and Spain have introduced laws based on it, and backed by hefty fines, to protect youngsters in both private and public pools. French law states that all privately-owned swimming pools should be equipped with a safety fence and gate with a self closing latch. This is not the case in Malta.

If you are renting a house with pool in Malta or Gozo this summer, do ask about pool safety equipment such as fences and gates if you have young children and are at all worried. Also, check about non-slip surfaces and ask if filters, reservoirs or infinity pools have sufficient safety barriers in place. Be aware that some houses for summer rentals have pools up close to the premises, or even fitted into courtyards; perhaps you can lock doors though this is rarely practical in summer heat.

Just be prepared to be vigilant. After all, however many safety devices are in place, accidents can happen so don’t rely 100% on anything other than your own eyes and presence of mind. If you really want to relax on holiday, swim with the kids!

Seaside / Poolside Safety Tips

Things to consider:
• Fencing round pools to avoid kids inadvertently wandering off to the swimming pool without adult supervision.
• Alarms that ring by the pool and in your house, as soon as wave action is detected, are also a good option.
• Another alternative is pool covers or shelters, though be aware that covers can hold enough water on top to pose a threat to toddlers.
• Be aware also of hidden dangers from drain or suction entrapments. Drains with broken, missing or faulty covers can entrap hair, the body, limbs, jewellery and clothing, or cause disembowelment/evisceration.
• Slippery surfaces. Nasty accidents can be avoided by wearing rubber swimming shoes, usually made out of wet-suit material. These can also protect little feet from sharp rocks and pebbles, sea urchins and other hazards by the sea.
• Swim Aids: armbands should be worn by young children at all times when in close proximity to pools or by the seaside. Modern versions are now available which do not have to be inflated. These swimming discs are quick and easy to put on, give your child better posture and more confidence in the water, and most importantly don’t puncture, so you have a lot less to worry about.
• Shade by the pool and even more so by the sea, is paramount in avoiding sunburn. Sea salt and sand mean sun block does not last as long at the beach, but these days you can find UV tents from most kids’ related outlets or online, which give the whole family a safe way to enjoy the sun.
• At the beach, avoid rough or choppy water. Be careful with inflatable boats and lilos, which can quickly and easily drift out to sea. Check the weather and the likelihood of jellyfish, before you head out.
• Have a medical or first aid kit with you to deal with jellyfish stings and accidents.
• Always have an adult present when kids are swimming. At gatherings, it is particularly important to appoint a strong swimmer to supervise kids by the pool or sea, to ensure there is a responsible adult watching at all times.

Additional reporting by Faye Camilleri Preziosi, who retails Delphin Disc armbands in Malta.
See also: Delphin website.

For more information on pool fencing in Malta, see: protectachildmalta.com

Photo: Anne Muscat Scerri.

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Great for cool, zesty lemonade this time of year

I had some friends coming over for a buffet and needed loads of lemons. All those salad dressings to make, and perhaps a cooling zesty lemon mousse for dessert. So, in Malta, where do you go for lemons? The supermarket?

No, you look over the garden wall. Or, more precisely, you lower a basket over the wall, your neighbour generously fills it, you hoist it up, and hey presto, you’ve a surfeit of lemons to make a gallon or more of lemonade, and some left over.

This little ritual of give and take plays out if you don’t conveniently have your own tree that is. Even the smallest front or backyard in a town like Sliema has room for a lemon tree. I have olive, cypress and palms but my ageing lemon died a long time ago. My neighbour’s garden is littered with fallen lemons. Old, knarled, thick-skinned with warty lumps, and slightly mildewed or bird splattered. Fresh from the orchard, in their natural state and free of those boxtoxed-looking waxed skins, they are bliss. A lemon scent and taste to die for.

Yesterday morning, 07.30, I called from my roof across her garden as I’d heard her weeding. Mary picked out the best from her crate of windfalls and obligingly packed my wicker basket full. I pulled it up the 15 foot drop, ever grateful. And I took a moment to reflect on this endearing slice of Maltese village life: the sharing neighbours, the use of produce to the full when in season, and an appreciation of nature’s bounty.

I look at Mary’s large orchard, overshadowed by the parish church, and pray that it will never be built on. Anything is possible in Malta. Long may her lemon trees live on.

What is a ‘basket’ in Malta?
Basket is used in Malta to refer also to a plastic bag, the sort supermarkets dish out (at a price these days). Not to be confused with wicker or reed woven baskets.

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Passed down the generations - how Malta's myths & legends survive

This title of this guest post speaks for itself. Malta of old, perhaps even today, is brim full of stories, folklore, legends, superstition, tradition and ritual.

Evarist Bartolo, Shadow Minister for Education and a lecturer in communications at the University of Malta, writes what seems a short story. But one can’t help wonder that some strange truth lies behind the episode he relates.

As a child, I lived with my grandmother and aunt near the sanctuary in Mellieha in one of the row of troglodyte houses with the bedroom and the kitchen in caves. Only the sitting room was constructed at the mouth of the cave and provided the simple façade of the house.

The devils were all around me as a child. Our grandmother made sure we knew that. Every summer evening, enjoying the fresh breeze, we all gathered outside on the pavement and street after sunset, and after dozing for 15 minutes through the rosary, I would wake up wide eyed to listen to her telling us what used to happen a long time ago in Mellieha.

At night I used to cover my head with the sheet to try not to see the flickering red light cast across the walls by the slow paraffin cooker on which a coffee pot was put to brew slowly all night for the morning. I was sure that the red light was coming from a crack in the rock and I was even surer that the crack led to hell, deep within the earth and from which any moment a devil might come to take me away.

I had seen the picture of the death of the bad man: a desperate man was looking down to the right corner of the room where he lay dying and a devil was coming out of the ground to take him away. “Because he lived a bad life” my grandmother told me over and over again.

I became even more alarmed when one evening she decided to tell us about the farmhouse that the devils built overnight on the edge of Mellieha: in the valley on your way down to Mellieha Bay the devils had decided to build a farmhouse. They built it in a night with huge blocks of stones. I did not dare ask why the devils had decided to take up farming in Mellieha. I simply decided that there was no way I would walk to that part of the village to check for myself the builders’ craftsdevilship.

I could see the devils working hard at night, cutting the big boulders, carrying them on their shoulders and building the farmhouse. I had no doubts whatsoever that the devils which looked like black and red lizards walking upright on their hind legs, dragging their long tail behind them, were very strong and could do whatever they liked, including building a large farmhouse in a night, after all they regularly dragged millions of sinners to hell where they roasted them and plunged sharp tridents into them.

So I never dared walk to the valley to see this farmhouse. I did not even know where it was exactly. Years later I chanced upon it as a teenager walking with my family when one of my sisters yelled at seeing a huge bale of straw approaching slowly over the hill. She was sure that the wizened old farmer was in fact one of the devils who had built the farmhouse and was now carrying that straw out of the silent farmhouse in the valley. Even that day I kept away from the farmhouse and decided to look at it safely from the other side of the valley.

I could understand perfectly what I read years later in Leonard Mahoney’s ‘5000 Years of Architecture in Malta’: “Superstitious farmers who tilled their lands in the vicinity never dreamt of making a closer acquaintance and so, protected by its name as much as by its solitude, it had stood unmolested for many years.” Is it a hunting lodge or a cow house? What did this building serve for? Who built it? Even Leonard Mahoney fails to answer these questions. “The food troughs (or mangers) are enormous and very high from the floor; evidence, as the local folk point out, that the (devil) owner of this farmhouse kept enormous (devil?) cows.”

He concedes: “But mystery wraps this building. There are no armorial bearings, or inscriptions, or even graffiti …to throw light on its original purpose or use.”

My grandmother might have been right after all and while I look at the solid windowless building on my way to Mellieha Bay I have yet to visit the place and enter it.

Photo: Courtesy of Walter Lo Cascio

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Tigne' Point, Sliema: The shape of all our housing to come. High rise and boxy.

Whenever I come back from the UK, the first thing that strikes me when I walk in my front door is how spacious my home seems to most I visit in my native country. Here, I find far higher ceilings and larger, open plan rooms. It’s something that’s struck me since I first visited Malta 20 years ago. How ironic that we love our space (inside) when we’ve so little open, communal space outside.

Farmhouses or older town house properties can have stratospheric ceiling heights. I estimate the height above me now, in my study, as close on 5.5 metres. My sister-in-law’s lounge ceiling is easily two or three metres higher and in a room of barn-like proportions. Of course, older properties may have those weeny rooms, where you bow your head, and all sorts of other oddities in layout. Palazzos and town houses generally have a full complement of airy rooms. Ceiling height is an important dimension here as it equates to cooler rooms; a must in our summer heat.

Times are achanging though, and new build properties can easily vary from very small, ‘can’t swing-a-cat-around’ proportioned flats and maisonettes to vast, deluxe penthouses or duplexes many recessed discreetly on apartment rooftops. One agent marketing Tigne’ said that the development is for people who don’t like flats. Apparently, the average apartment size is some 250m2 with some penthouses 650m2. While a lot of Tigne is billed at ’semi-detached’ – a new term for me in flats – it does look as if you can shake hands across those balconies, even if you’ve superior space inside.

Malta’s limited land mass and relentless building since the 1960s has seen the demise of space. You can still pay your money and get space as in those penthouses – but believe me, you pay for it. Malta is not a cheap housing option in comparison with what your cash can buy in even Provence and Tuscany these days.

For example: next door to me is a property on the market for Lm137,000 m (old Maltese currency) / Euro 319,000. It is a newly-renovated, end-of-alley, 3-bed house village house with small central courtyard (no garden, but church views from the roof terrace). A browse of a French estate agency website of similar places in Provence, showed I could get a 3-bed, old stone village house (near a premier village, that of writer Peter Mayle, ‘Year in Provence’ fame), with large central courtyard and garden with space for a pool, for Euro 50,000 less.

So why are we happy to pay a premium for living in Malta?
Malta has its pull and charm – we get around six people emailing us at Malta Inside Out each week saying they want to move to the Islands. Malta’s cache’ is that it’s English-speaking, has broadband, an airport within 20 mins for most of us, the sea nearby, and, for urbanites or those who like to have a lot of nightlife nearby, no property is ‘out in the sticks’. And we have all-year round mild temperatures (unlike N. Italy or Provence with their snow and Mistral winds). And, if you compare Malta as an urban area with major EU cities (we are an island-city after all), then Maltese property prices come in at good value – click here for comparison indices.

So, those who seek to live here, might not seek out a home with view in among the olives, as you can find in our Mediterranean neighbours. You are likely to come to Malta for social life more than anything. And that means it isn’t a particularly quiet retirement destination – more one for silver surfers and the active aged.

On the bright side, if you do buy here, Maltese property prices rarely, if ever, drop. The house for sale next door hasn’t dropped in price despite being on the market for near on two years now! The seller, who can afford to wait, knows that with each year passing, the space gets less and the price of a plot goes up. And, yes, it’s a house that still has those desirable ceiling heights in its favour. If it’s too small for some, there’s a country Palazzo going for Euro 8 million on the Islands!

Photo: courtesy of Pierre D. Zammit

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This article is about centipedes. And while this isn’t that appealing a topic, it will have a familiar ring to anyone living in Malta, particularly during the rainy, humid months of autumn to late spring. If you live in an old, stone house with pot plants, a patch of soil or rubble walls around you, then the black centipede will be your house mate for the winter. I live with plagues, and I mean plagues, from October to around mid April, when the stone finally begins to dry out. Then, in peak summer months, I find (fewer) centipedes in the house – but they’ve worked out inside is far cooler and damper than out when it’s 40 degrees C plus. But right now, I dread venturing out on my back patio after dark to pick a herb I need in the cooking. The stone is simply seething with the things.

I am writing this post to illuminate anyone like me who hasn’t quite cured the problem of how to rid premises of them, and also to assuage the fears of any unsuspecting tourist who may find one in a rented property, or, dread of dreads, in a hotel room.

If you have close fitting windows and doors, you may rarely come across one. If you do, rest assured they are harmless, if rather ugly. Internet research reveals them to be the Black Portuguese Centipede, and the majority of references to them as ‘pests’ come from Australian sources. Apparently, the creature arrived as an unwanted guest aboard a ship in around 1950, and has now colonised most of Southern Australia. Hardly anyone in the Mediterranean has commented on them – I think we’re just so used to them.

I am sure my son has a kiddies’ story that has a nice, caricature-style drawing of a centipede in it. And there’s Roald Dahl’s ‘James & the Giant Peach’ centipede of course. But my slithering companions are not nice. Woe betide if you step on one. Quite apart from the massive crunch, they leave an indelible stain on the limestone floor, and give off a really ‘orrible pong’. I was in an upmarket interiors shop in Sliema earlier this year and smelled their unmistakable smell – I, or another client had just done the honour of stepping on one.

How to cull their numbers
Not easy this one, but a quick way to stem numbers and hatching is to make sure you sweep up regularly all leaf and organic debris littering your patio. They are herbivores and thrive in leaf mould and damp conditions. Lift pots up – incredibly they sneak under them very easily however tight the pot is to the ground. I found an Australian company that does a kind of frictionless compound that you can apply as a strip along under doors ledges and right along the wall for a few inches. I am not sure it’s available in Malta, but here’s the link. On my rugged stone, I’d need a good few pots to remove the friction those centipedes’ legs love to move on.

For an amusing – if that’s the right word – low down on these kritters, see an American in Malta’s story here.

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Full of character, but still waiting to be understood.

If you’re thinking of renting a house in Malta, for a holiday or longer stay, you’ll come across the term ‘house of character’. My first reaction to this charming personification that crops up in holiday brochures and estate agents’ descriptions is ‘yes, they certainly are’! My second is ‘but whatever their faults, I love them!’ I’ve 12 years’ experience to fall back on, so I’ve got to know every quirk of my place.

But if you’re new to the concept, what is a ‘typical house of character’ in Malta and Gozo, and in what sense do they have character?

What they are
Well, the pictures you’ll see mostly show honey-coloured old stone houses perhaps with a shock of bright pink bougainvillea over the door or gracing the courtyard, but hopefully not near the pool as it drops brachts (the ‘flowers’) all the time! The limestone will be mellow and roughly hewn, not smoothed and bright white in the sun. You’ll see arches, wooden beams, spiral stairways (internal and outside), terraces, never a straight wall, pregnant (bowed, wrought iron-clad) windows and myriad niches, nooks and crannies. Charm indeed.

Where they are
Houses of character are mostly found in old village cores up the winding alleys. Even though terraced houses in theory, they are often called farmhouses because they feature large, arched rooms that were used as stables or as milling rooms. My neighbour must have one of the few mill rooms in a time warp, with the old mill stones still in place. Occasionally, you’ll find a house of character detached, out in the countryside; though the standalone ones are often partly or entirely newly built from old stone (a trend in Gozo where developers realised there weren’t enough of the right-sized holiday homes to meet demand). The term house of character is somewhat loose as it also covers older town houses with roofed balconies. I don’t tend to think of any 20th century town houses as being ‘of character’.

Living in them…
Their true character shines through when you live in them though. If you are passing through them on a week or two’s holiday, they will charm. But here, we relate the findings of some longer-term residents of character houses. Their experiences are useful to those thinking of moving to Malta and renting one.

Finding the house
Most properties (sale or rental) are listed with more than one real estate agent, so make sure you don’t see the same place twice. Be clear about what you’re looking for and if you are an expat, be prepared for some raised eyebrows. Quote: “Our agent was young Sliema (ie. town) lad and shocked we would consider a character house and the countryside! Most assume expats want to live in penthouse flats.”

Rates you can expect to pay
Rental rates vary widely, and it’s not always a case of you get what you pay for. Be prepared to negotiate on the rental. For a 3- to 4-bed place, with some guest space, outdoor BBQ area and pool/pool deck area, you can find properties ranging from €2,000/m – €6000 (and the upper rate one included a view of the old rubbish dump)! Houses of character can have weird bedroom layouts, with one room accessed only via another (so no landing or corridor). So the concept of ‘bedrooms’ to gauge size is vague. You have to go and see places to really know what’s what and whether they are worth the price.

What to look out for when viewing. Hidden extras to pay? Ease of getting maintenance done?
Some larger places do come with a handyman/caretaker,which is a boon to new arrivals in Malta. Electricity is expensive, so look for other ways of heating and cooking (and cooling in summer – ie. some people almost never use AC). There is a pool licence to pay which can mount up if your pool is large. Pools need maintainance (€40-150/month!), and in the summer if being used a lot, pump needs to run 12+hrs a day – which bumps electricity usage up. If you’ve children, be aware of pool safety. Many pools are in courtyards or open to deck areas.

Location: do check the vicinity
Beware noisy neighbours! Especially dogs on the roof. Constant barking can be mind-blowing. I’ve had a neighbour’s dog bark for 10 hours non-stop, literally. And think about parking in those alleys and village cores.

Costly houses don’t always buy you peace and comfort. The vast place for €6,000pm out in the countryside was swamped with flies (surrounded by stables), stank (because of rubbish dump), and was noisy (dogs and a generator next door), and when the wind blew (most days in Malta), it picked up dust and dumped in pool.

Hunters – I can hear their guns from a village core, so expect more noise at dawn in the bird hunting season if you live in the countryside.

Heat, damp, shade and light
Beware rising damp, or penetrating damp and humidity. It seeps in everywhere in most limestone houses, but can be difficult to contain in old ones with no damp proof course, and with wells in the house or courtyard. Damp is not good for asthmatics. See Heating a Maltese house. Air character houses as much as you can – open wide the windows (and let in dust of course) everyday, winter or summer. Some old houses have rooms with few apertures and little light. Do check some rooms have enough task lighting for comfortable reading.

Outdoor areas need shading in summer. Trees are better than relying solely on canvas. Quote: “If you have a shadeless courtyard pool, in peak daytime hours in July-August you won’t be able to use it!”

Trees also mean deep shade in winter, so any limestone paving outside will inevitably go emerald green and dangerously slippery during the winter rains.

Furnished or unfurnished?
Long-term expats usually move with furniture so just want the kitchen kitted out with oven, hob, dishwasher and perhaps washing machine. These do usually come standard in rental places. But be prepared to face the landlord’s mass of furniture, whether you want it or not. There is no storage facility in Malta (apart from the odd private (damp) garage, so landlords prefer to keep it in the house! Beware expensive breakable antiques and bad taste – sometimes the two go together. Again, negotiate to get it shifted somewhere if you want your own stuff in the house. If you need to store furniture, do be prepared to find it smelly and damp when you dig it out to use. Tip – air, air, air everything from wardrobes to kitchen cupboards, year round.

Travel & Transport from out of town places
Buses do go almost everywhere, eventually, even if on long, winding, rough routes. But expect to drive to get around easily unless you are central or in an urban area. One family moving from London had this to say about their location in the Maltese countryside: “We’ve got a cliff-top view, so it’s very quiet and beautiful, and feels very remote sometimes. Amazingly, the local shop delivers and the school bus comes here, but do check as one person we know in Bingemma said the school bus wouldn’t come her way. If you need them, check their routes before you rent.

Final word
Don’t let the list above dent your desire to live in a house of character. Just realise that they do have character, and so, like people, need getting to know and managing! And, they rarely loose their price, wherever they are located, should you love one so much you want to buy.

Photo: Gethin Thomas

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An old favourite dusted off each winter, until kerosene prices shot up!

Friends in the UK have looked enviously upon us in the past weeks. As they struggle in Arctic conditions, Malta has basked in temperatures up to 25°C. It’s been unseasonally warm, even for us.

In my 16 winters’ experience of Malta, I can usually reckon on getting to Christmas without feeling too chill in the house. We’ve had very wet, cold winters of late, but this year is true to form and it’s only now – early January – that my thoughts turn to heating. Many northern Europeans think the Mediterranean doesn’t get cold in winter. I remember a BBC TV programme about Brits emigrating in which one lady packing to move to Spain unwisely thew out her hot water bottle; I bought one last winter for my son’s bed.

The issue of how to heat a Maltese house to ambient room temperature never quite gets resolved. I’ve tried most forms of heating. What I need is a level of warmth that means I don’t have to wear fingerless gloves, two fleeces and a hat indoors – and still feel chill. It is often warmer outside than in. Maltese houses are built to resist sunlight.

We’ve had several queries from those abroad thinking of relocating to Malta about how we heat our houses for those crucial months – Jan to March; February is the really bitter month indoors, I find.

How you heat and how well you keep warm relate largely to your type of flat or house – stone, concrete, top floor, lower floor, thickness of stone, layout of rooms, number of windows and so on. Structure plays a large part in the choice and effectiveness of heating. Few people have central (oil-fired) heating as that requires planning while building or renovating. Fewer still use alternative bio-fuels or have photo-voltaic panels installed. And I haven’t heard of anyone with an Aga or fuel-fired cooking range in Malta, let alone one that can run heating as well.

Clearly, if you are renting, you have fewer choices. If you are house or flat hunting in the summer, do think about the heating issue!

The short answer to ‘how we heat’ is most of us don’t (effectively). We just wear more clothes. For the longer answer and the regular heating options, read on. No solutions promised though, even with modern technologies available!

Wood-burning stove

I installed one three winters ago in my metre-thick walled lounge. The pipe goes up the stairwell and just heats my bedroom above.

Pros: it looks nice, is a focal point, and provides comfortable warmth in one room at least.
Cons: It gobbles wood (one bag @ €6.30 lasts two nights for five hours of heating). Can be messy to clean. Needs to be on a couple of hours to really feel heat. Pipe drips liquid tar when it rains (chimney and piping badly installed!). Some possibility of flu clinker catching fire (not heard of chimney sweeps here, but probably a do-it-yourself job if you’ve a stone chimney breast not piping).
Verdict: I like it for atmosphere and can make room cosy. Not efficient and can’t hope to heat more than one room.

Kerosene Heaters

I had a digital, very effective Japanese-make kerosene heater that gave central heating equivalent ambient warmth – until it went wrong three years ago and no one here can mend it! It would cut out if oxygen in the room was low and had a child safety lock button. About two years ago, the price of Kerosene more than doubled, making it very expensive a form of heating.

A few years back you’d hear a lot of praise for Potez heaters. Estate agents still advertise homes with a Potez kerosene heater in glowing terms:”…a homely living room with a Potez Heater,” was how one put it recently. People now are trying to see if they can find alternative fuels – lighting oil – to use in these heaters. Anyone who was child in the 1960s and 70s in the UK would remember a Potez heater in classrooms. I’ve heard that a Potez heater can heat an entire Maltese farmhouse; shame about the kerosene price. I would recommend getting expert advice on anything to do with kerosene heaters!

Pros: does give great heat – if a modern type of heater. Centrally located, it may heat the whole house.
Cons: kerosene prohibitively expensive. Heater needs care and attention and they can be a hazard for pets and kids, and fiddly to operate. Need to ventilate rooms frequently.
Verdict: If you inherit one, use it in the really cold periods as it is effective, though costly to run.

Gas

My very friendly gas man called this morning (not to be greeted as Rik Mayall did his in that infamous episode of the BBC’s comedy, ‘Bottom‘.) Malta’s gas men deliver bottles, not check meters. They call in my street twice a week, delivering yellow bottles we can’t do without – for cooking and heating. Portable gas heaters on wheels are the main source of heating for most of us. I hate them, but can’t live without them come winter.

Pros: Easy to obtain (if you have a bottle already). Delivered to door. Instant heating. Easy to light. Can move from room to room as you please.
Cons: Heaters can smell (both mine do, even with adapter and piping changed). Bottles heavy to heave around. Metal casing ugly. Won’t last that long in peak winter. Safety concerns: eats oxygen and you need to ventilate rooms often. Produces moisture. Price doubled to €10.50 a bottle last winter.
Verdict: I’d really freeze without them, but don’t like them on safety grounds. So an evil necessity.

Aircons

Some of my rooms have them to cope with summer heat, so why don’t I use them in winter? Well, with electricity prices what they are, it can prove very costly. I abandoned using aircons as heating ages ago, and resorted to gas heaters. If you’ve a more modern flat, fully airconned, you are more likely to use them, swear by them for heating and not worry about the cost. Older houses rarely heat up well with them, and always cool down the minute they are switched off – warmth from a solid fuel stove can linger till next day.

Pros: Easy to use. Safe. Instant heat.
Cons: Costly to install and in older houses, rarely placed in all rooms. Expensive to run. Heat dissipates immediately they are switched off. Dry eyes and skin out.

No heating at all

Yes, this is an option. We won’t have frost on the inside of windows here, though hail storms and temperatures around 3-4°C at night are quite possible in wet periods. So a first line of defence is to put on more clothes. I know someone who won’t bother with any heating at all in their old house – apart from a rare open fire. Their mantra is that if people lived in the 1700s in it without heating, then they can too. I could just about live without room heating but not without an electric blanket to remove the damp, cold feel of my bed.

Roof insulation

Less a heating method and more heat loss prevention. The foam layer on top of the roof can be costly to install and may not do the business in winter. People I know say it can cut out summer heat but that it makes only a subliminal difference to room temperatures when it has to keep warmth in. (I am waiting for per metre costs so will add these soon).

Under-floor heating

This has been quite popular in recent years as it’s become less costly to import the technology. It’s best to install when you are renovating or building afresh as it’s too disruptive to dig up floors later. It runs off electricity, so in theory is expensive. A friend put in in his old farmhouse a year back so has trialled it for one full winter. Here are his views:

Pros: Quiet, efficient [low voltage so, in theory, also low cost]. No big impact on our energy bill – but we’ve only had one winter so far so hard to quantify. But we do use it judiciously – we keep two rooms on consistently [study and main bedroom] and it kicks in for about 10 – 15 mins per hour. It’s silent, cuts out humidity, offers even heat and kills dampness at source. In use with a de-humidifier, we maintain a temp around 18 degrees.
Cons: Needs planning to install. The only thing I’m not yet sure about is the relative cost.

Oil-fired Central Heating

Very few people have this installed, but it does work when it is! Can be ugly and expensive, and you need space to house an oil tank and few people in Malta have that. It’s rare to find here and thought of as a real luxury as it would only need to run around one month a year in reality. I am tracking down more details from the only friend I know with it. I remember her saying she didn’t put it on unless she had to!

Solar & Alternative Energies

Clearly, with all the sun Malta gets, solar energies have come to the fore in recent years, and a lot of people are making use of government subsidies to install solar panels primarily for water heaters. Fewer install photovoltaic systems that generate domestic electricity. You need a good deal of roof space for that I understand. I get a flyer a day through my letter box from local firms offering all manner of solar, eco-friendly, power systems. If you want some unbiased information about the practicalities in Malta of alternative energy supplies in the home, try contacting the Institute for Sustainable Energies at the University of Malta. See also the Malta Resources Authority for background info and about subsidies.

We will be updating this article as we’re sure to get comments in. Heating a Maltese house is a hot topic of conversation in winter!

Photo: Brandi Sims

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