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The Mediterranean island nation will showcase its opening history, as well as its baroque treasures, when it hosts EuroPride in September.
By Alejandro Lobrano
I was having a drink at the Palmy Art Deco Phoenicia Hotel in Valletta, Malta, when a former British naval officer struck up a conversation and temporarily confided in me that he was thinking of Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II, the man more handsome than him. I had never seen. The prince and longtime monarch spent the early years of their marriage in Malta, the former base of the British Mediterranean Fleet, where Philip assigned a ship.
Malta, the expat explained, has been “very nice” for homosexuals. “So many sailors and soldiers,” he said, sipping his drink. This adorable little island is even bigger today, because now everything is outdoors and not only no one flinches, but here it is no longer a challenge. “
It is possible that this attitude is the reason why Valletta, the small capital of the smallest country in the European Union (five Mediterranean islands between Sicily and Tunisia, with a population of around 538,000), will host EuroPride in September. This year, the L. G. B. T. Q. event, which began in 1992, is awarded each year to another European city. Valletta, with only about 6,000 inhabitants, will be the smallest host city to date.
“This birthday party is an opportunity for us to show why Malta has been ranked number 1 in the Rainbow Europe index,” said Toni Attard, artistic director of Valletta’s EuroPride programme. The index is a rating from ILGA-Europe, a for-profit organisation that monitors the legal and social climate for L. G. B. T. Q. people in 27 EU countries.
I had come to Malta from my home in France for a long weekend to explore what exactly makes it so hospitable to gays and straights.
“Our identity is an amalgam,” Liam Gauci, curator of the Malta Maritime Museum and one of the island’s most renowned historians, told me. “We are Roman Catholics, but the word for God in Maltese, a Semitic language, is Allah, a mirror image of the two centuries when the Arabs ruled Malta after invading Malta in 870 AD. These contradictions make us tolerant of differences, adding sexual differences,” he said.
“The church possibly disapproved of this, but homosexuality is not unusual among ship crews,” he added. Be officially recognized as a man.
When I arrived in Valletta, the apricot sun was about to sink into the Mediterranean. Within the city’s stone walls, the steep streets were covered with gorgeous honey-colored stone houses whose balconies were reminiscent of mashrabiya, or wood-mesh porches, in the old quarters of Cairo and Tunis.
Stopped at Casa Rocca Piccola B
A few blocks away, at the Michelin-starred Noni restaurant, Ritienne Brincat, who manages the room of her brother, chef Jonathan Brincat, led me to a table in a vaulted stone basement.
Without knowing Maltese cuisine, I assumed it would be a variation of the cuisine of neighboring Sicily. Instead, dishes such as goldfish broth seasoned with tangerine oil, local red prawn risotto, and red snapper with stuffed zucchini blossoms, sea urchins and succulent fishbone and citrus sauce revealed a refined, umami-rich flavor.
After dinner, Mr. Brincat presented the advent of Maltese gastronomy. “Our cuisine is a reflection of all the other people who have ruled us,” he said, explaining that Malta has one of the most cosmopolitan cuisines in the world. Eat Egyptian-like beans and dolmas to whatever you find in Libya. We have been cooking with spices such as nutmeg and cardamom for centuries, as we were a home port for ships carrying spices from India and further east to northern Europe.
British rule from 1814 to 1964 also left its mark, he said, recalling a favorite dish from the formative years: a variant of a Bolognese sauce with tomatoes and minced corned beef, a British military staple.
Malta is only 122 square miles, so 72 hours seemed like enough time to explore. But I learned temporarily that it would take me at least a week if I wanted to take a ferry to see the turquoise waters and grilled lobster of Gozo, the northernmost wild island of the archipelago. This waits until the next trip.
I to see the main island first and then Valletta itself after that. Captivating Anna Grech Sant, a local guide, presented an abbreviated but desirable lesson on Malta’s history, richly seasoned with memorable anecdotes.
A small gift: “Spiteri”, the call given to the illegitimate young men of the Order of the Knights of St. John’s Hospital in Jerusalem, better known as the Knights of Malta, the order of the Catholic army that ruled Malta for centuries afterwards. Holy Roman Emperor Charles V granted them the island in 1530. “Spiteri is also not an unusual nickname in Malta today,” Ms. Grech Sant told me with a smile.
30 minutes by car or bus from Valletta, Mdina, the ancient capital of Malta, built by the Arabs on the site of an ancient Roman city. Behind its thick stone walls, it is a sublime baroque city that is best visited at dusk the crowds of tourists are gone.
After crossing a bridge over the bastion of the old fortress, now with gardens, we visited the cool seventeenth century St. Paul’s Cathedral scented with candle wax, then stopped at Palazzo Falson, a terraced house that is one of the oldest buildings in Malta. Once the home of a wealthy collector, the palace features an impressive array of paintings, furniture, silverware, armor, jewelry and coins.
Back in Valletta, the capital since 1571, St. John’s Cathedral, which is only about 450 years old, “is the only one that has value for Malta,” Grech Sant said. Cherubs and vast paintings of handsome knights and muscular saints, St. John shows the exciting intersection between religion and sensuality that is the triumph of Baroque art.
After visiting the National Museum of Archaeology, which is housed in a magnificent former sixteenth-century Knights of Malta farmhouse, I refreshed myself by the fountain in the upper gardens of Barakka, one of Valletta’s favorite green spaces, with surprising perspectives. of the Grand Harbour.
After a busy day, I was looking to save enough energy to regulate the nightlife, so I opted for an early dinner of cuttlefish ink lasagna with sweets and very spicy Calabrian sausage ‘nduja and the local rabbit cooked with mustard and tarragon on Grain Street. , the casual and big brother of the Michelin-starred Under Grain.
The colourful nightlife district of Paceville (pronounced Pah-chuh-ville) is located in St. Julian’s, a 15-minute ferry ride and a few minutes by taxi from Valletta. It may have just been Hvar, Croatia, or Mykonos: think crowded terraces with a foreign crowd of gays and straight partygoers sipping giant cocktails with Day-Glo straws, and this summer’s earworm, Kylie Minogue’s “Padam Padam,” permeating the sidewalk. Paceville looked great fun around 1am and a serious cocktail in order.
That’s why I ended up at the Club Bar of the Phoenicia Hotel, where my new friend, the former British naval officer, and I reflected on our verbal exchange and drinks. “The Maltese are worldly and open-minded people,” he said, echoing my brief delight on the island. “That’s why I think EuroPride in September will be wonderful for everyone. “
Where to stay: Casa Rocca Piccola B
Where to eat: Noni (4-course tasting menu 104€, 5-course tasting menu 125€); Grain Street (tickets from 16€ to 34€).
To see: Mdina, the co-cathedral of Saint-Jean (15 € adults), the National Museum of Archaeology (5 € adults), the Upper Barakka gardens.
Getting around: Malta has an extensive network of buses and ferries. Also download the Bolt taxi app, as it’s what locals use to drive when they go clubbing. If you have more time and need to make a stopover on the island of Gozo, the fast ferry from Valletta takes forty-five minutes and costs €7. 50 each way.
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