**Genius? No, it’s just route one rebranded** *From London to Valletta, the emperor’s new marketing plan is wearing €2,000 sneakers* — Valletta’s Republic Street was grid-locked again last Tuesday, but this time not by cruise-ship passengers hunting for fridge magnets. A pop-up “drop” had landed: 200 limited-edition hoodies emblazoned with a stylised Knights’ cross, priced…
**The Night the Harbour Roared: How Operation Halberd Fed Malta’s Fighting Spirit** It was just past 21:00 on 27 September 1941 when the blackout curtains of Valletta’s bombed-out cafés fluttered from the inside—people couldn’t resist peeking at the thunder echoing across Grand Harbour. Searchlights sliced the sky, not for enemy aircraft this time, but to…
Victoria’s Heartbreak: Gozo’s Capital Mourns as Centuries-Old Buildings Crumble in Weekend Deluge It started with a low rumble that echoed through the narrow alleys of Victoria just after dawn on Saturday, a sound locals describe as “the city sighing.” By the time the church bells of the Basilica of St George rang for the 7…
Victoria’s Heart Breaks: 150-Year-Old Palazzo Crumbles After Three Days of Relentless Rain The storm that parked itself over Gozo last weekend did more than flood valley roads and drown potted plants—it tore a hole in Victoria’s soul. At 4:37 a.m. on Monday, the sandstone façade of Palazzo Debrincat, the cherry-pink corner mansion that has watched…
A Maltese legacy for global climate justice ================================================ The afternoon sun is still fierce when 73-year-old Toni Briffa locks the heavy wooden door of the family boathouse in Marsaxlokk. Inside, nets that once carried lampuki are folded next to a brand-new set of solar panels that will power the winch next season. “My father fished…
Trident Estates, the company that turned a derelict 18th-century hospital in Sliema into Malta’s most Instagrammed seafront façade, has posted a 12 % jump in half-year profit to €6.7 million – a figure that matters far beyond the balance sheet of a single developer. In a country where every square metre of limestone seems to…
**‘We are finally back home’: rebel octogenarian nuns reclaim Austrian convent** In a twist worthy of a Mediterranean melodrama, a band of rebellious Austrian nuns—most in their eighties—have stormed back into their 12th-century convent after a two-year exile, declaring spiritual mutiny against Vienna’s archbishop. For Maltese readers who grew up on tales of Valletta’s own…
Appreciation: Salvino Galea – the quiet force who taught Malta to look up Most Maltese children learn the name “Galea” in a traffic jam: the family’s ironmongery on the Birkirkara bypass is a landmark for parents fumbling for directions. Few realise that the same surname, painted in discreet gold on a workshop door in Ħamrun,…
‘We’re a family here’ – Aurelio Belli opens up on 50 years of feeding Sliema, one plate of rabbit at a time Sliema’s promenade hums with the clang of yacht masts and the hiss of espresso machines, but step inside Ta’ Kris restaurant on a Tuesday afternoon and the soundtrack changes: clinking carafes of local…
Aparthotel in Sliema to rise from seven to 10 storeys: Another slice of skyline gone? Sliema’s skyline is about to stretch a little higher. A seven-storey block on Cathedral Street is poised to sprout three extra floors, morphing into a 10-storey aparthotel that will loom over the traditional townhouses and 1960s apartment boxes below. The…
# Tiny warriors, big battles Valletta’s Upper Barrakka Gardens usually echo with the chatter of cruise-ship day-trippers, but last Saturday the limestone arcades were taken over by 200 primary-school pupils clutching hand-painted shields and cardboard spears. They were not re-enacting the Great Siege of 1565; they were competing in Malta’s first “Mini Knights” tournament, a…
Now you see it, now you don’t – the phrase that once belonged to circus magicians has become the unofficial soundtrack to Maltese life in 2024. One week a 17th-century townhouse in Sliema stands proud, its green wooden balcony catching the last rays of a Mediterranean sunset; the next, it’s a cloud of dust and…
