Every morning at 6am two catamarans leave Malta on their way to Sicily with Pozzallo and Augusta as their respective destinations. Apart from that there are at least two flights a day by Air Malta and one by Ryanair.
Never before have Malta and the south-eastern corner of Sicily been so connected. The Maltese are re-discovering their hinterland. Connections with the continent in the past, as Arnold Cassola wrote in a book, passed through Licata, which is near Pozzallo and today rather neglected by the Maltese (although there are reputed to be family links).
In my lifetime we can all remember the time when Maltese trooped to Catania to buy from the market anything they could not find in Malta. As I heard in recent videos, they still do even though we have all the shops we need. The tradition is still alive.
In my time too the Tirrenia ship from Malta used to touch Syracuse before Catania. Today Syracuse is completely cut off from Malta, which is a great pity, except for yachts. I remember coming back on 13th December 1974 and the crew refusing to leave until the statue of Santa Lucia reached the Porta Marina. Then we left and when we arrived back home learned we had become a republic.
There was a time too when Gozo Channel used to send a ship on a Lm10 day cruise. Then they were discontinued.
The relations between Malta and that corner of Sicily passed through fluctuations but have never been cut off. Today, they seem to have been rekindled. People are traveling, some are even buying property which is said to be cheaper there than here. Many are discovering new attractions which we never knew about before.
There are the mass attractions such as Etnaland and similar or people trek up to Etna and ski even in summer. A visit to Sicily will open new horizons as regarding gastronomy which with all the new restaurants opening up in Malta we have still not seen anything comparable yet.
But rekindling the links with that corner of Sicily can best be enjoyed on the level of culture. Few understand that we owe our language to that area which broke Arabic into a sort of Sicilian dialect which then made its way here.
But the main attraction of that area lies in the baroque buildings which were built after the terrible earthquake of January 1693 (which even here destroyed or damaged two of our cathedrals, that in Mdina and the one in Gozo, but not St John’s).
Touring the Val di Noto with its many baroque towns is worth all the time one dedicates. We do have baroque towns and villages but not in that class.
Then there are the other attractions – from the gorges with ice-cold water one can splash about in to properly-kept nature reserves. And of course the many agriturismo offerings which are being said to be more advantageous and cheaper than whatever Gozo can offer. People are voting with their feet.
We used to look down on Sicily as Mafia country but have now adapted to see it as Commissario Montalbano country if not Tommaso di Lampedusa country. Maybe that leads some of us to dig up long abandoned books and read them anew.
Summer is a time to relax and recharge, even in this time of Covid and the invasion of Ukraine, even in this time of rising prices and economic problems, even as our two inspirer nation friends, Britain and Italy, change their leaders.
Whether one remains put or goes to Gozo or crosses over to Sicily one must keep safe at all times and avoid running around in the heat. And enjoy life.
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