This week’s dream: Malta’s unspoilt “little sister”
Measuring barely nine miles by five, the island of Gozo is Malta’s quieter “little sister”, home to “secret coves”, neolithic monuments, baroque churches and “family-run restaurants serving rabbit stew”. Most visitors come on the ferry for a day trip, but it’s a great place for a quiet holiday, says Monisha Rajesh in The Guardian. Its villages are built of the same golden limestone as its larger neighbour’s, but Gozo is both greener and hillier. Edward Lear, who spent a week walking here in 1866, declared its coastal scenery in particular to be “pomskizillious and gromophiberous” – referring, no doubt, to its rugged and mysterious inlets, caves and cliffs; and perhaps to its largest beach, Ramla, a huge, dune-backed sweep of apricot sand.
The island’s most famous sight, and the objective of many of the day-trippers, is Ggantija (pronounced gigantiya), a spectacular pair of neolithic temples dating from roughly 3600BC and believed to be among the earliest man-made structures in the world. Perched on a hilltop, and with walls six metres high, they encompass a series of grand chambers and altars. Also worth an extended visit is the island’s capital, Victoria (or Rabat – its original name, still in use among locals today), with its fine baroque cathedral and towering citadel, which was largely built by the Knights of St John, Malta’s overlords from 1530 until 1798.
Gozo’s food and wine scenes are lively, and its restaurants tend to have a stronger “farm-to-fork ethos” than on Malta, which is far more built up. Fresh local ingredients and traditional methods prevail at the excellent Ta’Philip, for example: it has a woodburning oven where suckling pigs are slow-roasted from midnight until 10am. And the island is a wonderful place for hiking, kayaking and scuba diving, while the “equine therapy centre” Dreams of Horses Farm is a “delight” for younger children, offering them the chance to commune with horses, donkeys, goats and ducks.