Agri Malta

AGRICULTURAL MALTA

Day 1 – Arrival – Transfer to Hotel - Dinner

Arrival at Malta International Airport

On arrival, one of our representatives will meet you at the airport and show you to your transport to your accommodation.

Taxi will be waiting outside the terminal to take you to your converted House of Character in the village.

Settle down and discover this renovated, vintage property in the village.

In the evening, your transport will be waiting for you outside your house entrance to take you for a delicious 3 course dinner at Gululu Restaurant in St. Julians.

This restaurant is one of the best places on the island to taste favourite local dishes including typical Ftira – Maltese Pizza – from our traditional wood burning bread oven with various delicious toppings. Other dishes also include Mqarrun (baked macaroni), Aljotta (fish soup), Torta tal-Fenek (rabbit pie) . Sit outside on the water’s edge for a snack or light meal and gaze dreamily at the bobbing fishing boats. Enjoy the sea breeze and bustling activity all around.

On arrival at the restaurant, you will be guided to one of the best tables in the house where you can enjoy a lovely 3 course meal together with a beverage package consisting of ½ bottle wine, ½ bottle water and coffee.

After dinner, your driver will accompany you back to the hotel for a good nights rest.

Day 1 –Dinner at Local Cuisine Restaurant

Day 2 – Valletta & Ftira Experience

Following breakfast, your guide and taxi driver will accompany you to Valletta for your first day of discovery in the Malta Islands.

Today, we shall be visiting Valletta, Malta’s capital city built by the Knights of St. John – a city built by gentlemen for gentlemen. Valletta will be the Capital of Europe in 2018 and today we shall be seeing some of its most prominent jewels, including St. Johns Co-Cathedral and the Grandmaster’s Palace.

Day 2 – Valletta – St. John’s Co-Cathedral

After this experience, you will make your way with your guide to the centre of Valletta to visit the awe-inspiring St. Johns Co-Cathedral. St John’s Co-Cathedral is a gem of Baroque art and architecture. It was built as the conventual church for the Knights of St John. The Grand Masters and several knights donated gifts of high artistic value and made enormous contributions to enrich it with only the best works of art. This church is till this very day an important shrine and a sacred place of worship. It is also a venue for cultural events. Commissioned in 1572 by Grand Master Jean de la Cassière as the conventual church of the Order of the Knights Hospitaller of St John and designed by the celebrated Maltese military architect Gerolamo Cassar, St John’s Co-Cathedral stands as a unique monument of international importance. The church is dedicated to St John the Baptist, the patron saint of the Order.

The Cathedral's interior

The interior, in sharp contrast with the facade, is extremely ornate and decorated in the height of the Baroque period. The interior was largely decorated by Mattia Preti, the Calabrian artist and Knight. Preti designed the intricate carved stone walls and painted the vaulted ceiling and side altars with scenes from the life of St John.

The painting depicting The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist (1608) by Caravaggio (1571–1610) is the most famous work in the church. Considered one of Caravaggio's masterpieces and the only painting signed by the painter, the canvas is displayed in the Oratory for which it was painted. The oratory also houses Caravaggio's St Jerome III (1607–1608).

Day 2 – St. Johns Co-Cathedral

St. Johns Co-Cathedral, Valletta

Day 2 – Valletta – Grandmaster’s Palace

We now make our way to another gem found in Valletta, the Grandmaster’s Palace. The Grand Master’s Palace has been the administrative centre of Malta for almost three and a half centuries. The original palace, built in 1571, was the seat of the Grand Master of the Knights Hospitallers of St John and later, during the British colonial period, served as the Governor’s palace. Today it is home to the House of Representatives of Malta and the office of the President of the Republic of Malta. Here you will have the chance to see: • The extraordinary Gobelin tapestries in the Council Chamber, a personal gift of the Spanish Grand

Master Ramon Perellos y Rocaful. • The frescoes in the Supreme Council Hall, by Mattia Perez d’Aleccio, depicting the Great Siege of

Malta of 1565. • The courtly and lavish parade armour of the Knights of Malta. • The Turkish Armour in the Islamic and Ottoman displays.

Grandmaster’s Palace

Day 2 – Ftira Baking Experience

After feasting our eyes on the beauty and majesty that are St. Johns and the Grandmasters Palace, we now walk down the streets of Valletta and make our way towards the lower end of Valletta, in particular to one of the most renowned and oldest bakeries in the city.

Here you will have the opportunity to not only read or dream about the uniqueness of local gastronomic culture but you also have the opportunity to gain subject knowledge and, more importantly, should you so wish, be actively involved in the learning, preparing and baking process. Dining is only part of the experience. All ingredients used are local produce.

After this hard work, you will most certainly enjoy feasting on your creation!

Following this late lunch, you will then be accompanied back to your residence.

Day 2 – Dinner in St. Julians, Balluta Bay

After this jam packed day and after having rested a bit, your driver will accompany you to Balluta Bay, to have a lovely dinner at this fine restaurant, one of the most famous restaurants on the island, truly good food in a lovely setting with a great view of the bay.

The award winning restaurant is situated on the seafront of Balluta Bay Malta and has been earmarked with renown and leading popularity for 32 years, because it’s principal mission in operation continues to offer gastronomic a la carte specialties, with impeccable service, in an elegant and comfortable exquisite setting.

After dinner, the driver will accompany you back to the hotel.

Day 3 – A Day On the Farm

Your guide and driver will pick you up after breakfast and will take towards the north of Malta, to Mgarr. Here, you will have the opportunity to see how local farms work, what kind of produce they have, the risks and perils they encounter as well as try the local delicacies grown and prepared on the farm. With two farming families working together with the local agricultural community, you are invited to take part in an authentic contemporary tradition. Unlike our neighbouring Mediterranean countries and mainland Europe, Maltese farming is characterised by relatively smaller fields. In conjunction with our climate and calcium-rich soils this has been a defining feature in the evolution of contemporary Maltese agriculture. Experience first hand how Maltese farmers have successfully adapted their methods to these unique challenges in the past and present to deliver a high quality product.

Key features of your visit include:

- Site visits to farmers’ holdings and fields in Mġarr Valley - Tour of the Malta Sunripe Facilities - showcasing the making of our delicatessen products - The Maltese Agriculture Experience - documentary viewing available in 11 languages - Wine Canteen - showcasing the production of the indigenous Ġellewża and Girgentina farmers’ wine varieties - Delicatessen and Wine Tasting Session - Farmers’ Lunch

Day 3 – A Day On the Farm

Day 3 – Dinner in the Centre of Malta

In the evening, your driver will pick you up to take you to dinner in Mosta. This restaurant is a local favourite., a lovingly converted townhouse in central Malta just a stone’s throw away from the famous Mosta Rotunda (the village's parish church with the third largest unsupported dome in the world). The unassuming exterior blends in with the village core and it really feels like you are entering a Maltese home. The restaurant conversion has kept the majority of the building's character with large beams, rustic stone walls, a spiral stone staircase and stone arches. A more recent interior redesign has successfully blended the old with the new, creating a truly welcoming and interesting space. In line with the restaurant's homely feel, the cuisine is best described as perfected home-cooking. Hearty soups, daily market vegetables, freshly caught fish, succulent meats and mouthwatering desserts make a menu that is a constant work-in-progress depending on availability of seasonal ingredients. After dinner, the driver will accompany you back to your residence.

Restaurant in Mosta

Day 4 – Agri-Historical Visit to Apiary & Olive Oil Tasting

Your guide and driver will be waiting outside your residence to take you to an area in Malta that is still pretty much unknown to the Maltese and tourists alike. Any many good things happen there! The history of honey production in Malta dates back to hundreds of years ago, merging historical and agricultural aspects together. A short walk up an ancient Roman road will lead us to rock-cut apiaries, guarded by the oldest carob tree on the island. A burial site in Xemxija overlooks a prominent natural marsh, and ideal resting area for birds. While exploring the Buskett area, one can appreciate how nature and mankind have worked together in order to establish a citrus grove surrounded by Mediterranean maquis and woodland. Furthermore, a walk through the countryside in Mgarr will lead us to a watch tower and stunning views of the North Western coast.

Day 4 – Agri-Historical Visit to Apiary & Olive Oil Tasting

Farmers work tirelessly to care for their land, produce food and green our landscape. The nutritional properties of such fresh fruits and vegetables have long been discovered by our ancestors. We have combined all of these elements to bring about a unique and refreshing sensory experience. During this activity guests will be greeted at an exclusive orchard with beautiful unobstructed views, where they will be treated to a selection of local seasonal delicacies. Estate extra virgin olive oil and pure single-source honey will be amongst the highlights of the visit. Following this jam packed activity, your driver will take you back to your residence to relax.

Day 4 – Dinner in Mdina

Your driver and guide will pick you up from your residence and take you to Mdina, Malta’s old capital city. You will be dining at one of the most renowned restaurants on the island, but before dinner, your guide will take you for a short walking tour of Mdina. On reaching the bastions you will be offered an aperitif whilst enjoying the magnificent view of Malta from this spot. After this short walk to work up an appetite, your guide will accompany you to the restaurant. An original Norman residence hidden amongst the honeycombed streets of Mdina, Malta’s medieval capital, the restaurant evokes natural charm and character. Dine in truly romantic surroundings beneath the flowering Oleander tree in the vine-clustered courtyard during the summer, and by candlelight and an open log fireplace that keeps the restaurant warm during the winter months.

After breakfast, you driver will assist you putting your luggage in the car and checking out from the residence.

On your last day in Malta, your driver and guide will start the day by taking you to Hagar Qim, one of the oldest free standing temples in the world, followed by a boat ride to the Blue Grotto.

Ħaġar Qim, "Standing/Worshipping Stones", is a megalithic temple complex found on the Mediterranean island of Malta, dating from the Ġgantija phase (3600-3200 BC). The Megalithic Temples of Malta are among the most ancient religious sites on Earth, described by the World Heritage Sites committee as "unique architectural masterpieces.” In 1992 UNESCO recognized Ħaġar Qim, Mnajdra and three other Maltese megalithic structures as World Heritage Sites.

No burials exist in the temple or the area surrounding Ħaġar Qim, nor have any human bones been discovered in Maltese temples. Bones of numerous sacrificial animals have been found. It is theorized that the Ħaġar Qim complex was built in three stages, beginning with the 'Old Temple' northern apses, followed by the 'New Temple', and finally the completion of the entire structure.

After this historical place, a visit to the stunning Blue Grotto in Wied iz-Zurrieq (boat trip optional)

Day 5 – Hagar Qim & Blue Grotto

After the visit to the Blue Grotto, we shall be taking you to a lovely Maltese fishing village called Marsaxlokk, one of Malta’s oldest fishing villages, truly an eye pleasing sight with all the coloured fishing boats dotting the bay. At Marsaxlokk, you will be treated to a delicious traditional Maltese lunch, a quick visit to the local fish and flee market, and we will then make our way to the airport. Departure from Malta.

Day – Hagar Qim & Blue Grotto