Uncommon Malta and Gozo
SynopsisPlot
Uncommon Malta & Gozo is an intimate companion and travelogue that steers you through the urban streets and along the rugged coast with anecdote, lore, myth, field notes, maps, routes, illustrations and itineraries as your guide. Contributors new and established, resident and visitor, commingle to create a remarkably varied field manual for today's discerning traveller.
Story
About this book
Uncommon Malta and Gozo is a travel guide and travelogue compiled by Emma Mattei. It covers both the main island of Malta and its smaller northern neighbor Gozo, moving between urban streets and coastal paths. The book combines practical tools like maps, routes, and itineraries with anecdotes, local lore, myths, and field notes, positioning itself somewhere between a standard guidebook and a personal journal of place.
The project draws on multiple contributors, including both long-term residents and visitors, established writers and newer voices. This mix gives the book a layered perspective on the islands rather than a single narrator's point of view. Mattei frames the approach around what the book calls a habit of flux, encouraging wandering and unplanned detours over fixed sightseeing schedules. Illustrations accompany the text alongside the route information.
Malta and Gozo together cover roughly 316 square kilometers, a small area that nonetheless holds thousands of years of layered settlement, from Neolithic temple builders to Knights of St. John to British colonial administration. The book's structure treats this density as an advantage, suggesting that getting slightly lost in such a compact landscape is one reliable way to encounter something unexpected.
