Canine and human offenders

There is nothing I enjoy doing more when in Malta than to walk in the countryside, enjoy the architecture and sit down for a good espresso.

The minister has already spoken (February 14) about the water served with a hint of coffee which restaurants and catering establishments have a habit of calling espresso. More like dishwater to me.

David Alamango (March 15) wrote about his colleague's experiences with taxi drivers and now George Cini (March 23) writes about the RTO signs in the countryside. It is all part of the ongoing litany of what is wrong with the tourism product which the Maltese authorities try very hard to promote.

I can add many more stories to those already published in The Times. For instance, showing three foreign visitors the shore on the south of the island and getting threatened with vicious dogs because we got too close to the salt pans. Owners (it is presumed) yelling at us in Maltese to get away. Had these visitors been on their own, what exactly would they have understood!? There were no signs and no warnings.

Minister Francis Zammit Dimech opened Is-Simblija for public viewing on February 8, 2003. I happened to be in Malta and, yes, I went. This marvellous mediaeval chapel in the middle of the Dingli countryside, with its unique arches, was discovered by Alain Blondy, a Frenchman, in 1994. In his own words, he had been roaming the countryside with his cousin and discovered the chapel while trying to avoid some angry dogs.

In May, 2003, once again, I was in Malta and asked two Maltese colleagues whether they would be interested in doing a photo shoot in the area. After much search - I guess the signage got worse since the minister visited a few months earlier - we found is-Simblija.

Much to our anger and my own embarrassment for having brought my colleagues there, we were motioned away and told that this was private property. And just in case we had second thoughts the dogs were ever present. I am not sure whether the dogs were vicious but we were not about to find out. I wonder whether these are the same dogs Prof. Blondy came across.

Dogs, dogs, dogs both human and canine, the not so uncommon problem for tourists and locals enjoying a walk in the Maltese countryside.