The scenery and the lifestyle make Gozo a perfect retreat from the frenetic pace of modern life. Life on Gozo moves at a leisurely pace. The rhythms dictated by the seasons, fishing and agriculture.  In winter and spring, the Island is covered with flowering herbs and lush crops.  In summer, it’s awash with oleander, bougainvillea and geranium. The island is surrounded by crystal clear water and boasts a series of low hills with terraced fields and valleys, providing numerous bays, creeks, sandy beaches and rocky coves.  Once visited, Gozo remains a romantic memory.

 Villages in Gozo reflect a way of life that is both rural and refined, from superbly proportioned squares and carved balconies to old traditional farmhouses with their typical archways to the most contemporary houses, there is an amazing amount of creative architectural detail. You'll find balconies embellished with balustrades, Georgian style facades, and a generous amount of floral color everywhere in flowerpots, roof gardens and ubiquitous bougainvillea.

Gozitan architects and stonemasons have, over the years, laboriously built churches with domes whose stunning dimensions dwarf the villages in which they stand.

 Green hills and fertile valleys separate one village from the other. Wherever you look, the sea is always within the reach of the eye. In fact, Gozo has an amazing coastline with its tiny creeks, sand beaches, blue sea, majestic rock formations and protruding watchtowers.

The island is reached by a very cheap and regular ferry service which takes about 30 minutes. The ferryboat crosses the channel from Cirkewwa to Mgarr

 Reached from Valletta on bus 45, and from Sliema on bus 645. Return boat tickets cost are only sold on Gozo. Buses and taxis meet every arriving boat.

gozochannel.com year-round between Mgarr Harbour (Gozo) and Cirkewwa (Malta) including Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays and offers a night service on weekends (Friday & Saturday) and on all days of the week during summer.
Mgarr Gateway to Gozo by holiday-malta.com
gozo.com/info/ferryschedule.php

helisureste.com A regular helicopter service links the Malta International Airport with the heliport in Xewkija, Gozo.
gozo.com/info/helicopterschedule.php

Travel time is around 15 minutes. The mighty Xewkija rotunda, along with Victoria's Citadel, is the most conspicuous landmark in Gozo.

Gozo meaning "joy" in Castillian, is the name the Aragonese gave this island, when they possessed it in 1282. The idea of joy and pleasure is also conveyed by its Latin motto "Fertilis ab undis caput effero - a fruit land raising its head from the sea". There are other theories as well such as that it was probably called Gwl by the Phoenicians, the name of their particular sailing ships.  The Greeks and the Romans translated the name to Gaulos and Gaudos respectively.  Aragonese and Castilian rule, many centuries later, saw the Islands called Gozo. But the local population used the current Maltese name, Ghawdex, pronounced ‘ow-desh’. 

FOOD & DRINK

starwebmalta.com/restaurants-gozo.htm
Find a directory with web pages fotos and generally upbeat descriptions of over 150 restaurants on Gozo

GOZO BEACHES: Marsalforn, Ramla l-Hamra and Xlendi Bay rank amongst the most popular. The red-sand beach at Ramla Bay is among the nicest in the Mediterranean. Marsalforn and Xlendi near Victoria are the main resorts.
visitmalta.com/resorts.html

Throughout the Middle Ages and into the rule of the Knights, Barbary corsairs and Saracens raided the island at intervals.  In 1551, the Saracens carried out a devastating raid, taking almost the entire population away into slavery. The Island never really recovered from this, and remained under populated for centuries.

The arrival of the Knights saw the medieval Citadel refortified and for many years all inhabitants on the island were required to sleep within its protective walls.

The vulnerability to pirates and slavery is the reason why villages in Gozo did not develop until the late 18th/early 19th century. Before that, the tiny population stayed close to the citadel, taking shelter within its walls between dusk and dawn, in line with a curfew order that was only lifted in 1637 and whenever there was notice of a raid by pirates. The villages remain, today, completely different in structure to those of Malta.

Cultural Council, Banca Giuratele, Independence Square, Victoria. Tel: (++356) 21556125

Rabat ~ Ghawdex Patron Saint: Santa Marija Feast of Saint George

St Paul, is Gozos patron saint.

localcouncil.rabatmalta.com

TRANSIT HUB for all POINTS on GOZO more

Museum of Archaeology, Natural Science Museum, Folklore Museum, The Old Prison,

In the centre of the island its capital, Victoria, dominated by the Citadel, or 'Gran Costello', where from the battlements you can enjoy a view of just about everywhere on this 10 by five-mile island. The Norman House, on the Citadel's grounds, houses an interesting folk museum there is also an old prison exhibit

Museum of Archaeology in Victoria where many of the Neolithic artifacts Marija Gimbutas links to Goddess worship are located
The 1985 Archaeological Convention held in Malta has entered into feminine mythology as a one of the great collisions between academic patriarchy and the zeitgeist of the return of the goddess. more

Natural History Museum This Museum contains five halls with an exhibition on local geology, fossils and birds, the evolution of mammals, marine life and foreign natural history.

The Citadel cinemas (Tel: (++356) 21559955) project two different films every evening. Audience tends to increase considerably on weekends. British, American and European Films are shown daily.

 Glass Shops: You can visit a glass making workshop and watch the professionals shape molten glass into bottles

  
Victoria  can be a dusty maze of a town you can get lost in but the cool refreshing waters of Xlendi Bay are never far from view.

In a widely circulated press release, Brad Pitt was said to have been personally devastated  by the loss of Mr. Camilleri who he would visit bedside every day between his accident and death weeks later from related complications

Tragically a George Camilleri, (39) a former Mr Malta, (1989) suffered an horrific leg wound after jumping off a galleon as it approached the beach in the Trojan War  in the epic 2004 film TROY. Camilleri, who had also appeared in Gladiator, was rushed to hospital, where metal pins were inserted into his leg, before he discharged himself to go home to his wife Josephine and three young children. But, two weeks later, the extra was rushed to hospital after suffering a heart attack - caused by a blood clot from his leg. Doctors released him home again, but he suffered another heart attack and he died on 17 June 2003.

• News for Troy at imdb.com
• Trivia for Troy at imdb.com
• Quotes from Troy at imdb.com

Historians enjoy being sharply divided on the question of whether or not the Trojan War actually occurred - and if it did, which archaeological site is actually Troy. Discoveries made at the beginning of the 21st century provide new evidence of several armed battles in the right area at the right time - but definitive proof is hard to find, due largely to the historical practice of constructing one city on the ruins of another. Homer's Iliad was written hundreds of years after the Trojan War supposedly occurred, and are primarily of importance as a philosophical guide of powerful symbols and collective archetypes. The tendency of writers to insist on converting mythical stories to factual historical events also afflicted the rewrite of this version of Troy. The Iliad and the Odyssey has informed civilization as much as any story outside the Bible and Koran while predating them by more than a millennium. Many mythological elements were removed: gods such as Apollo, Zeus, and Hera were central characters in the story who drastically affected the course of the war by killing and/or saving individual people during the conflict.

• The producers' decision to eliminate all mythological elements from the story makes one wonder about the unusual degree of natural calamity which accompanied the making of the film.  Brad Pitt,   tore his left achilles tendon and had his house in Cabo, Baja California Sur, Mexico, destroyed by a hurricane during filming as he slept in it, the first of two that visited production. Besides the death of George Camilleri, there were numerous injuries to cast extras. The film was bombed by the critics for scripting and directorial flaws, but remains a significant financial success due to strength in Europe.
• As Achilles (Brad Pitt) strolls along the beach and among the unpacking Greeks, he teases Odysseus about being the last one to show up. This is an in-joke for those familiar with the Odyssey, which due to his 7-year stay on the island of Calypso (widely considered since ancient times to be Mata's Gozo) Odysseus was the last Greek to return home from Troy.
   

gozo.com/photogallery/

/gozo

GOZO RADIO STATIONS
88.3	-					Super One Radio|rep. .. political/talkback/music
90.9	-					Radju Katidral - Victoria MT.. community/religious (Aug.)
93.7	-					Radju Malta|rep. .. news/talk/info/culture/sports/music
95.1	-					Radju Sokkors - Kercem MT.. community/religious/info (July)
95.5	-					Radio 101|rep. .. news/talk/information/sports/music
96.1	-					Radju Margerita - Sannat MT.. community/religious/seasonal (July)
97.6	2kW					RTK - Victoria MT.. news/talk/religious/sports/music
98.3	-					Radju Bambina - Xaghra MT.. community/religious
99.3	-					Radju Prekursur - Xewkija MT.. community/religious/info (June)
104.0	-					Radju Lehen il-Belt Victoria - Victoria MT.. community/religious
106.3	-					Radju Lehen il-Qala - Qala MT.. community/religious (Apr,Aug,Dec)
106.9	-					Radju Luminaria - Nadur MT.. community/religious/information

maltagozo.com/photos.html

june29th.com/photogallery/gallery.htm
 Lots of Nadur and Nadur Carnival images

gozotv.com Documentary & TV show producer

RAMBLA BAY gozo.com/photogallery/pan_ramla.php