C2008 Cartwright Associates

Gozo - a 25 minute ferry ride from Malta (which is approx 3 hours from U.K.) - is just nine miles by five. It's a peaceful, law-abiding place with a great climate (hot dry summers and mild winters) and a low cost of living. Villages are mostly perched on hills, their romantic balconied houses huddled round little squares and long narrow, winding streets.  At night the old hilltop churches are lit and can be seen for miles.

Gozo has something of an Aegean island feel to it. With a wild terrain of rocks, gnarled trees and sheer cliffs, it is windswept in winter and, apart from a few very good hotels and rented farmhouses with pools, it has no pretensions to be anything that it isn't. It's a place you come to for a step back in time, some relaxation, good hiking and excellent scuba diving

The people speak a harsh mixture of Arabic and Sicilian, until they break into fluent English, often with a pronounced Australian or even estuary English accent.

By contrast with Malta, Gozo is highly fertile, and in the spring the hills that dominate the island are cloaked with colour. Artichokes grow in the tiny terraced fields, ringed by lemon and orange groves.

Edward Lear said of Gozo in 1866: 'Its coast scenery may truly be called pomskizillious and grophibberous, being as no words can describe its magnificence'. He had a point. Is it the island's eccentricity, rather than its beauty alone, that make his words so apt?

Ancient Leland buses chug around Gozo, looking for all the world like Art Deco radio sets on wheels. Blue lamps hang from the walls of the police stations; the mail is deposited in red pillar boxes.

Gozo is littered with the debris of the history that has swept accross the Mediterranean. It is believed to be the mythical Ogygia where Calypso lured Odysseus for a seven-year break from his journey home. Gozo claims the oldest free-standing structure, the massive stones that make up the temple at Ggantjia, built around 3,000BC.

�

Gozo is wonderful fun. It is cheap and accessible. It has none of the pretensions or gaudiness of so many Mediterranean islands, wears its history lightly, and seems to survive its annual summertime invasions with its charm unscathed.

The sleepy pace and rustic charm of this tiny tranquil haven, are wont to induce a luxurious stupor, the right kind of medicine of those who have been deprived of harmony and tranquility for any length of time............

Further information on Gozo can be seen at www.gozo.com

��