The joys of being a host

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These few months I have been here in Malta due to other commitments has given me the opportunity to meet with our Valletta G-House guests. Unlike a B&B or a hotel, ours is a private town house (we originally did the place up for ourselves) and so we like to make our guests feel special, like old friends who have come to stay. The preparation is part of the joy of being a host and I shall miss doing this when I return to the UK and hand the job over to my dad again.


Our florist

Day starts with a visit to our florist early in the morning before he gets busy. The flowers go in the bedroom upstairs, so the flowers cannot be cottagey but neither too formal. I have always thought fresh flowers bring a nice touch to a house, something no inanimate decoration can.


Welcome pack

It's the little extras in the welcome pack that make it that little bit more special. Lately we've taken to putting in Italian espresso coffee (Lavazza) and a sweet small moka pot just for two. It does make a pleasant change from the horrible taste of instant coffee. The fresh fruit, depending on the season give a local feel to the woven basket. The Maltese bread, wine and Galletti (biscuits) are a staple part of the welcome basket. It's not the first time that there is a final mad rush to soource one or another of the welcome pack contents especially if it's a Sunday or public holiday. Other basic groceries such as milk and mineral water are of course also taken care of.

And finally it's making sure I'm at Malta International Airport to welcome our guests personally. I keep an eye on the Arrivals page via my computer because it is not the first time that flights are not on time.
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Too posh to sleep together

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We have always provided one bed at Valletta G-House and we were convinced we were offering the ultimate luxurious bed to aspire to. You can imagine our disappointment at finding out through none other than sleep researcher at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital - Neil Stanley - that posh people have never slept together. Only us mere middle class mortals, it seems, do so.

“Sharing a bed is just a cultural norm, with no science behind it,” Stanley says. “Posh people have never done it. It’s a mark of wealth to sleep separately — it should be aspirational.” In Britain, bed-sharing is a relatively recent development, entering the mainstream in the late 19th century. Sensible Victorians are said to have wailed about the intolerable cruelty of having to share a bed. As late as the 1970s, twin beds outsold doubles (remember George and Mildred?). It’s only in the past 30 years that adults have been expected to sleep in a bed that provides 9in less space per person, when divided between two, than a child’s single.

Stanley sums it up succinctly. “Sleep is the most selfish thing you can do, and you can’t share it.”

Read the rest of Neil Stanley's article on The Sunday Times

FEEL FREE TO COMMENT
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Valletta G-House speaks Portuguese

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Valletta G-House features on Portuguese travel magazine Rotas e Destinos this April. The G-House repute is spreading fast and here is a market that we might have completely missed had journalist Teresa Federico and photographer Manuel Gomes da Costa not come to visit.

No que toca a alojamento, a oferta hoteleira abunda em Malta. No entanto, alugar uma casa num bairro popular da capital proporciona certamente uma experiência especial. Primeiro projecto do género de Aldo Gatt, director de arte na área da publicidade a residir em Londres, a G-House é um boutique place num edifício do século XVI. Cruza o seu hobby de recuperar casas e o trabalho, através, por exemplo, do grande quadro que ornamenta o quarto, baseado num clássico de Eugène Delacroix mas resultante de uma foto do inglês Tim Flach, feita para uma campanha da luta contra o cancro. Está já alugada até Agosto, provavelmente com a ajuda da divulgação em revistas internacionais.

This is my extremely hopeless translation of what Teresa wrote in the article:

Hotel accommodation is easy to find in Malta. However, renting a house in a popular quarter of the capital certainly makes for a more special experience. The G-House is the first project of the kind for Aldo Gatt, an Art Director living in London. The boutique accommodation is in a XVI century town house. He gets great results with mixing his day job skills with his love for restoring old houses. Embellishing the main room, for example, is what looks like a classic painting of Eugène Delacroix but, a closer look will reveal it to be a Tim Flach photoshoot Aldo art directed, part of a cancer treatment advertising campaign. The house is booked well into August.

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Valletta G-House on food-lover's blog

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"I am not a chef or a professional cook. My qualification is that I love to eat and I firmly believe that one can't ever cook well unless you love food and in turn eating."

Nanette writes a blog about food and lives in Australia but her parents are Maltese so mouthwatering Maltese dishes frequently find their way amongst her beautifully illustrated recipes. This usually makes me get homesick for my mother's own cooking.

"I guess I have always been passionate about food and I think this has something to do with my heritage and upbringing. My parents are Maltese and immigrated to Australia in the 1960's. They are both of the generation and belief that 'Food is Love' so the greater amount of food, the greater the love."

Her latest blog is about our boutique accommodation in Valletta. Nanette writes:

"The Valletta G-House is an elegant private town house nestled within the walls of Valletta and is a 10-minute walk from capital's waterfront. This 16th century home has been painstakingly restored with great attention to detail and comes fully equipped with all the latest modern conveniences, whilst still managing to retain its original character."

We shall certainly keep an eye on Nanette's blog. Her combination of cooking and design is one that mixes well. When I'm back in the UK, in a few months' time, I shall try cooking some of the dishes on Gourmet Worrier, but until then I shall have to sit back and enjoy my mama's own cooking.
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VGH amongst Elle magazine's hip new destinations

December's issue of Elle magazine is full of ideas in its travel section on how to dodge the credit crunch.

From four-day trips to 10-day luxe breaks, there's a HIP NEW DESTINATION for every budget. What credit crunch?

Amongst some amazing destinations it features Malta as "a more grown-up, less expensive Ibiza" highlighting some of the less well known entertainment places like the gorgeous Bedouin Bar in Paceville, with its chilled Moroccan atmosphere (must give it a try myself, as soon as I have a moment).

It could not but mention the stylish Twotwentytwo in Valletta (although the correspondent managed to get the name and url wrong, calling it Twenty Two). This bar/restaurant has hogged the international press' attention and is being hailed as the way forward for Valletta, contemporary architecture that compliments the history and culture of the city.

Elle also mentions Muddies in Balluta (not my kind of thing at all) as well as "the elegant waterfront restaurants in St Julians" and then concentrates on the city of Valletta which it says "is a great base with unbeatable views and shopping".

When it comes to where to stay, Elle lauds Valletta G-House

Valletta G-House is a chic apartment in a 16th century townhouse. It's crammed with original features, oil paintings adorn the stone walls, the kitchen is sculpted out of the cellar and heavy antique furniture gives a sense of grandeur. Stone stairs lead to the huge bedroom with a mosaic floor and vast oak bed.

The oil paintings mentioned by Elle magazine are photographic reinterpretations of two famous paintings - Liberty Leading the People and The Raft of the Medusa

Special Valletta Edition magazine

I will admit that since last special Valletta edition (Vol 1) of Flair magazine, I have been craving for the second. The first edition gave me the opportunity to have a peek at the interiors of a couple of buildings I had never had the opportunity to enter. The second volume has just arrived in the shops this morning and I have plans to sit down over a few cups of tea this afternoon and read through it. The article about St John co-Cathedral's tapestries will be the first I will savour.

In the meantime I shall leave you with the pages within Flair that feature Valletta G-House. Enjoy!

Open publication

Canadian Affability and November Oranges

If there is one thing that I love about having a holiday place is the people I get to meet. With some, there's an immediate link and you feel as though one has known them all one's life. It does not happen with each and every guest - most guests choose a holiday rental precisely to be independent so one cannot expect to strike instant friendships each time. I guess some people are just friendlier, like our Canadian guests Jack and Sherrie. I send my love to them here. I understand they have not had the most pleasant of journeys, going back.



I have just picked up our next guests from the airport. They were booked for the November Oranges Special. The idea was that my dad's tree usually produces some lovely juicy Maltese oranges but they were not ripe in time, so I drove all around Malta looking for ripe Maltese oranges. I did eventually find a little shop in Valletta that had some. I added a jar of Savina's lovely Honey with Orange (lovingly presented) and a Medina wine bottle from Delicata to the welcome pack and thought I would photograph it for the blog.

A couple of weeks ago, Guardian travel writer Benji Lanyado, stayed at our place in Valletta for a couple of nights. Today his article about Valletta appears on the Travel Section of the British national newspaper. There is always some trepidation as well as excitement associated with reviews. Since I am currently in Malta, it's a good thing the Guardian is accessible online.

On my beloved city he writes how most visitors overlook it:

Malta's self-championed emergence as a bastion of packaged holidays and cruise liner tourism made one rather fortuitous omission. The five-star hotels of Sliema and St Julians and the resorts in the north-east were bundled up in packages and sold in abundance, leaving Valletta, the tiny Unesco world heritage capital city, largely untouched by tourism. A grid of thin undulating streets all clad in white honey-glazed stone, it feels like an unpolished, less toy-townish version of Dubrovnik.

Benji describes Valletta G-House as one of the finest apartments he has come across and challenges a friend who's impression of Malta is "like grunge, britpop and Gloria Estefan comebacks" to stay at the house. One minute in The Valletta G-House will, he writes, question his friend's perception of the island as one that only appeals to the blue rinse brigade.

Valletta G-House was not the only boutique bed mentioned. Benji loved both properties and mentions that "both apartments are the side-projects of gay men with fashion photography backgrounds". Indeed I know of several houses in Valletta being lovingly restored by gay men in the creative field. Some of these houses are grand little palaces in their own right. The funny thing is that Benji might have inadvertently outed someone.

Travel Romance

The Guardian has dedicated last Saturday's Travel Section to Romance and has featured a 100 ways to treat one's lover. This is what they said about Valletta G-House.

Slightly unfairly, Malta is still often seen as being a little stuffy but this Valletta townhouse manages to buck the trend. The G House is a beguiling mix of fashion-mag camp and trad Maltese styling (dark-wood detailing and a fabulous rustic cellar kitchen). Photographic "interpretations" of paintings by Gericault and Delacroix sit on honey-coloured walls. The Maltese capital's waterfront is a 10-minute walk away and, for true romantics, the apartment even boasts a Romeo and Juliet-style wooden balcony.

Wish I was there

Two events will make this a rather exciting week for me. On 18 February's Malta Sunday Times, the lifestyle magazine HOMEWORKS will be featuring Valletta G-House. On Thursday 22 February the new Corporate Identity for the Malta Arts Council that I have been working on will be presented to the press. Unfortunately I cannot be present at any of the events as I shall be here in the UK for work.

For those that will be in Malta this week, do not miss Dimitri Shostakovich's Intimate Letters at the Manoel Theatre. The concept behind this series of concerts in various Auberges and Palaces around Malta, links the intimate letters of famous composers to their music. For those among you that, like myself, love classical music but feel inadequate when it comes to knowing who's behind the music, the letters that are read out present an excellent insight into the private lives of the composers. This makes it far easier to get into the spirit of the music and to comprehend, in small ways, the inspiration or tribulations that afflict the music's author. I was lucky enough to be invited to the first one at the Auberge de Castille. I had never ventured into the life of Verdi, a life full of tragedy, a life lived to the full. I had also never ventured inside the Prime-Minister's Offices, the Auberge de Castille, in particular the hall where the string quartet played, surrounded with Grandmasters' portraits. Shostakovich's music will be performed on 22 February by pianist Caroline Calleja, ProMuzika's violinist Sarah Spiteri and Robert Attard, Vladyslav Beliavskyi and Yaroslav Mikluho.