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Gozo - with tiny Comino -
is a place to escape to at any time of the year. Even if you are on holiday
in Malta.
The
people are welcoming and friendly, the countryside both dramatic and
picturesque and if you want to get away from it all, you can. It has all the
essential ingredients that make it an ideal holiday destination.
Even if you are there
for a short visit, it is easy to see why Gozo has become known as
undiscovered paradise
The charm of Gozo
is apparent the moment you arrive there. Greener, more rural and smaller
than Malta, life on Gozo moves at a leisurely pace. The rhythms dictated by
the seasons, fishing and agriculture.
Even if you are there
for a short visit, it is easy to see why Gozo has become known as
undiscovered paradise
The charm of Gozo
is apparent the moment you arrive there. Greener, more rural and smaller
than Malta, life on Gozo moves at a leisurely pace. The rhythms dictated by
the seasons, fishing and agriculture.
A visit to Gozo should begin in
Victoria, the island's capital. Victoria was named after the English
monarch Queen Victoria, to commemorate her Silver Jubilee in 1897. Even
today, many locals still call it by its original name, Rabat (which means
city).
This little commercial hub with its
street market (known as it-Tokk, in Independence Square) also contains the
Citadel (known often as the Gran Castello or the Cittadella), an impregnable
strategic point which owes its origins to the late mediaeval era, and which
was re-fortified by the Knights of the Order of St. John to act as
protection for the inhabitants.
For many centuries, pirates and
corsairs used Gozo's small harbors for shelter, while they raided the island
in search of fresh produce and water. Often they took the inhabitants
captives in order to sell them as slaves. To save themselves and their
families from this terrifying fate, the inhabitants, on discovering the
enemy had landed, would flee to the highest point at the center of the
Island. |