My art walks featured at National Geographic Travel

Jeanine Barone, a travel writer with an eye for hidden treasures, sends us this note about her recent cultural, natural, and supernatural finds in Malta.

Artists at Work
"My neighbors thought I was crazy because I'd have to find people who liked art and who also enjoyed walking," said Hermine Sammut, an artist who leads Art Walks through the Gozitan countryside. Luckily, she had no trouble finding interest, as our small group of art lovers hiked narrow dirt roads flanked by clumps of prickly-pear cactus and terraced fields planted with tomatoes, melons, artichokes and pumpkins.

Along the way, artists opened their doors to us, inviting us to examine their works and ask questions about their creative processes. In the village of Ghajnsielem, sculptor Joe Xuereb showed us his curvy limestone pieces that take inspiration from local Neolithic figures. As we headed to the village of Nadur, an ancient stone watchtower with a new contemporary roof stood sentinel. We climbed a path leading to a landscaped promenade with vistas of neighboring Comino Island. Once in Nadur, Justin Falzon, a young painter, led us to a spare bedroom in his mother's house where he laid out a multitude of canvases displaying his brooding death series. It created a hush over our otherwise lively group.
Finding Art in Nature
On Gozo, Malta's greener and sleepier sister island, I walked along the north coast, beside Xwiendi Bay, passing seaside cafes and pebbled beaches that give way to a seeming moonscape. There's a sculptural magic here, just west of the petite resort city of Marsalforn. It's dominated by golden cliffs and a 160-foot-wide expanse of rectangular and abstract-shaped hollows resembling puzzle pieces.

These saltpans, row upon row of them, cover a sea-buffeted limestone ledge. Strolling along this mile-long expanse, I found some filled with a mirror-like surface of seawater, perfectly reflecting the cloudless sky. Others are dry and woven with glistening crystals that form a pattern of fine lace. Centuries ago, when the saltpans were formed by nature, the Phoenicians and Romans used them to produce sea salt. Since the 18th century, locals have dug hundreds more by hand, with eight families now maintaining and harvesting the salt. Between May and September, you can spot them using brooms and shovels to harvest the dry heaps of white sea salt which they then sell in the island groceries.

My walks featured in the Malta Magazin Germany

if you like to see more of the Magazine click on the link:

http://projects.goldland-media.com/malta/