Down a short wide alley off the main street in San Lawrenz, there’s a giant iron lamp beneath which an old wooden door hides a courtyard flooded with light and – in a country known for the extraordinary quality of light – seems to glow particularly bright. From a straightforward enclosed courtyard which is totally private, the external staircase rises
A distinctive quirky frontage introduces a characterful old farmhouse in the heart of San Lawrenz: through the original external door, the wide cosy entrance way is ripe for a large-scale conversation piece – currently a perfectly-restored antique Norton motorbike stands proud on the traditional flag stones opposite an old well beneath golden arches. The hall leads to an intimate central
Tucked just 100m from the church in the quiet village of Kercem, and so within easy reach of a butcher, baker and a pharmacy, and only a mile from Victoria, there’s a hidden gem of a house that combines a magnificent mill room with a grand salon that might grace the finest Maltese townhouse. It’s a winning combination. Entering from
… The building that housed the old mill is now a hidden farmhouse, set at the end of a long driveway, and as you pass under the arched gateway, the drive opens out into a large courtyard, glistening white between ancient stone walls. Green foliage flourishes on all sides and a tall palm tree stands proud. Protected from the wind
Just a couple of hundred metres from the church at the heart of Santa Lucija, the smallest village on Gozo, there’s a pretty row of traditional farmhouses: their stronghold-stone facades are brightened by potted plants and doors and windows painted in bright primary colours, red, blue and sunshine yellow. At the western end of the row, however, the doors, barely
Each year I buy a new ornament for the Christmas tree, and this year I fell for one in House of Gozo, a shop in Independence Square in the heart of Victoria, just down the slope from the Citadel. And, gold-ribboned and glossy as glass, my beautiful new bauble shows a Christmas star of Wonder shining high above the citadel.
Malta and Gozo, known for their photogenic tendencies, are popular places for filming – from Gladiator and Troy to Game of Thrones and a lesser known film, By The Sea (2015), starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie which was filmed at the tiny, pretty bay of Mgarr ix-Xini, one of the first places we fell in love with when we
Last week, we took a picnic to Gozo’s Punic Temple, a lesser known beauty spot with a long history. We were welcomed by the quacking of ducks as we parked up at L-Ghadira ta Sarraflu, otherwise known as The Duck Pond. It’s a pretty natural freshwater pond year-round and home to the Painted Frog (Discoglossus pictus), Gozo’s only indigenous amphibian,
Whenever I have an hour to while away in gentle sunshine, I am drawn by the magnificence of the citadel to stroll its heighty barricades and amble through its windy streets. It’s a medieval city in miniature, just 200m in diameter, and yet it has a cathedral and an imposing court building in its main square, and quarters of winding
Yesterday The Significant Other and I sat on our small front balcony in the gentle October sunshine as the sun began to stripe the colours of sunset across the sky. Gazing at the sea due North, we noticed something we never have before: to the right of the scattered cargo ships which seemed to balance precariously on the far horizon,
Stamp duty in Malta and Gozo has been reduced to 1.5% until March 2021 in order to help boost the economy following the impact of COVID-19
Property sales remain “encouraging”, according to real estate agencies, putting paid to prospects of major drops in post-COVID-19 prices and pointing only to “more realistic” corrections so far. It is early days for analysis, they agree, but no significant changes have been noted in prices despite the million-dollar question being asked in view of the economic climate due to the
