FIRST July/August 2020

JULY AUGUST 2020

CIVILISED NATURE Your experience diet and mental health

EDITORIAL FRACTAL DESIGN IN NATURE

The Golden Ratio

“I loved you when I saw you today and I loved you always but I never saw you before.” Ernest Hemingway

Natural patterns of Fibonacci's golden ratio can be seen in nature in the growth of trees, leaves, wave patterns, and shell formations.

Photograph Giulia May.

umans have always be in awe and inspired by the beauty and rationale of nature. We take certain things like the sea and natural landscape for granted, but both the colours blue and green and patterns of nature are soothing and provide for better mental health well being. Unlike artificial landscapes of grey building and rectilinear patterns, nature's curves and undulations and seemingly erratic design actually make us calmer and more open to leading creative and happy lives. We take for granted the spaces we live n as being just a means to an end, when in fact the way we live and the spaces we live in can be instrumental in allowing us to live fulfilled lives, both individually and at a community level.

In 1202 AD Leonardo Fibonacci wrote that he had discovered a numerical sequence of numbers that are the foundation of what

is known as the golden ratio or Fibonacci spiral. This is a set of numbers that start with 1 or 0 and proceed based on the rule that each number is equal to the sum of the proceeding two (for example the sequence 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13...). This ratio of numbers is frequently called the golden ratio and gives rise to the Fibonacci spiral. Natural patterns of this sort can be seen in nature in the growth of trees, leaves, wave patterns, and shell formations.

Various artists and architects throughout the ages have been subliminally or directly influenced by this natural occurrence which has inspired their own creative work, for example, Leonardo Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man Drawing as well as his Mona Lisa have both been shown to follow this ratio.

We take the here and now for granted, where sometimes we need to cut off from all extraneous circumstances, and work on enjoying the very simple things in life.

“There is nothing else than now. There is neither yesterday, certainly, nor is there any tomorrow. How old must you be before you know that? There is only now, and if now is only two days, then two days is your life and everything in it will be in proportion. This is how you live a life in two days. And if you stop complaining and asking for what you never will get, you will have a good life. A good life is not measured by any biblical span.”

Ernest Hemingway - For Whom the Bell Tolls.

ON THE COVER. St Julian's, Malta. July 2020. Photographed by First Magazine.

EDITORIAL CONTENT AND SALES MANAGER SEAN ELLUL SELLUL@INDEPENDENT.COM.MT DESIGNER CONRAD BONDIN CBONDIN@INDEPENDENT.COM.MT PRODUCTION MANAGER ANDRE CAMILLERI ACAMILLERI@INDEPENDENT.COM.MT PUBLISHER STANDARD PUBLICATIONS, STANDARD HOUSE, BIRKIKARA HILL, ST JULIAN’S. TEL: 00356 2134 5888, WEB: WWW.INDEPENDENT.COM.MT FACEBOOK FIRSTMAGAZINE PRINTER PRINT-IT. FIRST IS PUBLISHED AS A COMPLIMENTARY MAGAZINE WITH THE MALTA INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY AND IS NOT TO BE SOLD SEPARATELY. NO PART OF THE PUBLICATION MAY BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT THE PRIOR AGREEMENT OF THE PUBLISHER. FIRST MAGAZINE SINCE 1993.

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CONTENTS

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Screenshot from Le Mythe Dior, a mesmerizing surrealist movie showcasing Dior’s haute couture collection.

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CIVILISED NATURE. Cities of the Roman Empire were studded with parks, encouraging outdoor activity and improved mental health. Photo Carlos Ibanez.

Comet Neowise streaks beh in Belarus, July 2020. Photo

Saudade. The longing for the perfect place exists in many of us. Scala dei Turchi, Realmonte, Agrigento, Sicily.

Photo Camille Minouflet.

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Summer houses brimming with idiosyncratic style in Jennifer Ash Rudick’s new book Summer to Summer: Houses by the Sea. Photo by Tria Giovan, courtesy of Vendome Press.

Up to 85% of all marine litter is plastic, with the number one product group being drink bottles. Photo Brian Yurasits.

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CONTENTS

[JULY/AUG UST I S SUE 202 0]

FASHION

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Dazzingly Digital.

Dior couture online – Le Mythe Dior.

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La Bella Italia.

Dolce & Gabbana Alta Moda.

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PHOTO DIGEST

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Screenshot from Dolce & Gabbana Alta Moda, July 2020.

Saudade.

The longing for the perfect place exists in many of us.

URBAN LANDSCAPES

Get out of the kitchen with Stephen La Rosa‘s Easy Summer.

Horiatiki – Greek Salad with Feta.

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Civilised Nature.

Ancient Roman and urban design.

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The Experience Diet.

Mental health and making places ‘experience-nutritious’.

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STARGAZING

Spectacular Neowise.

Newly discovered, this comet will be back in 7000 years.

hind an Orthodox church o Sergei Grits/AP.

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ENVIRONMENT EDUCATION Saving our blue from ourselves.

What are you doing to help?

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EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT The Maltese Doer.

MEP Miriam Dalli discusses her sixth year as a Member of the European Parliament.

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HEALTH & FITNESS

Reality Check.

We need to get off our butts, writes Richard Geres.

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COFFEE TABLE

Summer to Summer: Houses by the Sea. Summer houses brimming with idiosyncratic style in Jennifer Ash Rudick’s new book.

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GASTRONOMY Herman Hesse on what trees teach us about life and belonging. Borghese Gardens, Rome. Photo Antonia Felipe.

Gastronomic Delights.

Julia Farrugia Portelli, Malta’s Minister for Tourism and Consumer Protection, on Malta’s Michelin Star Restaurants.

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We need to get off our butts, writes Richard Geres. Apple Watch‘s Activity Rings.

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SUMMER COOKING

Easy Summer.

Stephen La Rosa gets you out of the kitchen with quick summer dishes.

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ART AND NATURE

A Note on Trees.

Herman Hesse on what trees teach us about life and belonging.

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FASHION FASHION RETHINK

DAZZLINGLY DIGITAL

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FASHION

In May Gucci and Saint Laurent both announced that they will leave the fashion calender behind. The coronavirus lockdown has given pause to rethink the pace of fashion, offering the possibility to return to less hectic periods of creativity and production. Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele imagines twiceyearly seasonless collections. The virus-imposed shutdown has recharged creativity among those who found new time for reflection.

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FASHION

Screenshots this page and previous page taken from Le Mythe Dior, directed by Matteo Garrone.

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FASHION

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ith confinement, creativity has blossomed and many designers have gone digital to present their collections. With no runway available, this July, for the first time Dior presented their couture online. Creative Director Maria Grazia Chiuri enlisted Italian director Matteo Garrone (who directed last year's Pinocchio) to create Le Mythe Dior, a captivating dreamy surrealist movie. Her concept was ThÊâtre de la Mode, inspired by couturiers in Paris who in 1945, at the end of WWII, with material in short supply, exhibited their clothes in miniature doll sized exact replicas in an exhibition at the Louvre.The mesmerizing film shows nymphs at play in the Garden of Orpheus as they watch the arrival of the 2020 collection in a little house on wheels. Inside are the minimannequins to be delivered to couture customers worldwide.

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FASHION La Bella Italia

DOLCE & GABBANA ALTA MODA

This page: Image source Facebook/DolceGabbana. Facing page: Image source Instagram Suzymenkesvogue.

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FASHION

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he Italian Dolce Vita is back, with high fashion from Dolce&Gabbana for their vivid flowing collection of colours and pattern, reminiscent of a beach holiday on Capri or Portofino, swirling through Palazzo Dolce & Gabbana. The collection evokes the essence of Italian summer, bringing back Sophia Lauren glamour.

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PHOTO DIGEST

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PHOTO DIGEST

1. Scala dei Turchi, Realmonte, Agrigento, Sicily. The Scala dei Turchi rises above the sea along the coast of Realmonte. The stunning white colour of the cliffs and sparkling sea have been made even more popular following Andrea Camilleri’s novels starring Commissioner Montalbano.

Photo Anna Biasoli.

2. Tonnara di Scopello, province of Trapani, Sicily. An old tuna fishery transformed into a private beach for residents and vistors.

Photo Flo P. 3. San Vito lo Capo, Sicily. The bay near Macari, nestled in a stretch of coastline indented by small bays and rocky cliffs. Photo Flo P. 4. Saline di Trapani, Sicily. This evocative landscape of shallow salt pools, saline, and decommissioned windmills lies along the coast between Trapani and Marsala.

Photo Flo P.

SAUDADE AROUND THE WORLD IN 12 FRAMES

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What is “Saudade”? The most Portuguese of words, saudade has no English equivalent. It refers to a melancholic longing or yearning, a recurring theme in Portuguese and Brazilian literature. In his 1912 book In Portugal The Portuguese scholar Aubrey Fitzgerald Bell writes "saudade is a vague and constant desire for something that does not and probably cannot exist, for something other than the present."

We are all treasure hunters. The longing for the perfect place exists in many of us. As we all emerge from lockdown and start to venture to more faraway places, immerse yourself in this visual celebration of summer escapes and the seaside.

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PHOTO DIGEST

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PHOTO DIGEST

7 8 6 5. Piazza San Domenico, Palermo, Sicily. Flamboyant, chaotic and charming. Palermo hides many gems.

The current Chiesa di San Domenico was built in 1640 and the facade was added in 1726. Inside the beautiful 13th-century cloister dates from the original Dominican monastery that stood on the site.

Photo Giuseppe Buccola.

6. Capri, Gardens of Augustus. Capri’s steep cliffs rise from perfect aqua water.

Follow the trail down the Gardens of Augustus to the water’s edge below.

Photo Gary Along.

7. Manarolo, Cinque Terre. One of the five seaside towns making up Cinque Terre, Manarolo’s beautiful harbour area with crystal clear deep-water swimming.

Photo Rahul Chakraborty.

8. Portofino. Sitting on its own Peninsula, Portofino represents the Italian Riviera par excellence, with a yacht filled harbour and designer shops.

Photo Gaetano Cessati.

9. Positano, Amalfi Coast, Salerno.

Positively one of the most famous coastlines in the world.

Photo Sergio Otoya.

10. Oia, Santorini, Greece. Soaring above turquoise sea, whitewashed Cycladic houses line the cliff tops of an island shaped by an ancient cataclysmic eruption, around

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the bay which is actually an immense crater of a drowned volcano.

Photo Massimiliano Donghi.

11. Leiria, Portugal. Portuguese tiles are magestic, well painted and simply

stunning. Photo Catarina Carvalho.

12. Madeira, Portugal. Portugal’s most dramatic island is warmed all year by the sun and is truly an island full of hidden gems. Photo TC Kniss.

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URBAN LANDSCAPES

YOUR EXPERIENCE DIET AND MENTAL HEALTH

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URBAN LANDSCAPES

Cities of the Roman Empire were studded with great and salubrious public works including parks and fountains, and no urban plan can have a future if it does not pay attention to public places. The park merging into the natural environment seems to have been a Roman invention, and open spaces can facilitate the flow of energy throughout the city and promote interactions and synergies 17

URBAN LANDSCAPES

Overleaf: View of the Forii Imperiali from the Altare della Patria, Rome. Photograph Enric Domas. This page: Balluta Bay, St Julian’s, Malta, July 2020. Photograph First Magazine.

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URBAN LANDSCAPES

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e could learn a lot from the Roman world, where cities were designed with people’s livelihoods in mind, both in terms of cultural and religious activities, over and above economic needs. Large open green areas, part and parcel of every town, encouraged outdoor activities and allowed inhabitants to enjoy nature, even if in a controlled and civilized manner. This can still be seen in Rome today where large parts of the city core are pedestrianised and have parks and pjazzas.

“Public spaces belong, by definition, equally to all citizens. They are the places where people come together to celebrate and to protest, to declare or to pray in silence, to express joy or indignation. Rem Koolhas describes them as fortresses of freedom. Noble, safe, attractive and enjoyable public spaces, promoting collective life, bring a higher value to places. They have great potential as islands of civilisation in the archipelago of the city. Open spaces can facilitate the flow of energy throughout the city and promote interactions and synergies.” (Source: “Sustainable Cities for the Third Millennium: The Odyssey of Urban Excellence”, by Voula P. Mega, published by Springer.)

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jazzas enhance our day-today “experience menu” by encouraging beneficial activities like walking and sharing space and nature with other people. A pjazza is at once a play space, a meeting place, offers opportunities to express oneself and experience nature as a place of reassurance and belonging, as well as a movement corridor. Pjazzas allow play, socialisation and nature to safely escape the private domain and spread into the shared domain. At the same time, they control car movement so the “vehicle domain” does not overwhelm these other activities.

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URBAN LANDSCAPES

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URBAN LANDSCAPES

The EXPERIENCE DIET

IS YOUR ‘EXPERIENCE DIET’ MAKING YOU UNWELL?

Just as our food diet affects our physical and emotional health, so does our “experience diet”. This is the day-to-day mix of the things we do, see, hear and feel.

And, just like our food diet, the quantity, quality and balance of those experiences need to be right, writes Urban Designer and Lecturer Jenny Donovan.

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hat’s on your experience menu? You might call this our experience menu.

If it’s not on the menu it doesn’t get to be in our diet. If your community’s experience menu lacks things that are good for you and offers many things that are bad for you, good health becomes harder to maintain. The truth is we are not always good at identifying our needs and are easily swayed by our wants. An example is choosing to drive rather than walk, even for short trips.

To add to the problem, something that needs fulfilling might be on the menu but be so poorly presented as to be quite unappealing. In places like this it is possible to walk, cycle, connect with others, set and meet selfdetermined challenges or do any of the other things you need to do to meet your needs. However, it is less likely.

And, if you do choose these options, these good experiences are likely to come at a cost, exposing people to fear, boredom, or other unpleasant emotions.

Many of us have an inadequate experience diet, with too much emphasis on the unhealthy “experience groups” – isolating, sedentary, stressful experiences.

This is the equivalent of a diet high in fat, salt and sugar, and low in green leafy vegetables. And it has the same outcomes: obesity, greater vulnerability to a range of non-communicable diseases, and general ill-health.

You might say such built environments are all fast food and no salad.

The good news is that, in cities that are forever renewing themselves, we can change this. We can use good design to put the full range of health-supporting behaviours on the experience menu. This means making needs-fulfilling behaviours not just possible but preferable, so a healthy experience diet offering variety, the right quantity and quality, and including a little bit of what you like becomes the easy (or easier, at least) choice.

There is so much more to walking than walking. Apart from keeping us physically healthy, it stimulates our minds and integrates us better with our surroundings.

This page and facing page: Villa Borghese Gardens, Rome. Photography Jordan Brierley.

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o how can we do this? As explored in my recent book, Designing the Compassionate City, we can help people improve their experience diet by thinking about the rewards a place offers them for being there and using the place in particular ways.

Their motivation to do things that meet needs comes from the pull of the place as well as the push of their desire to meet that need. By framing opportunities with qualities that welcome and inspire people (and incidentally meet other needs), we can tip the “balance of influences” on the decisions people make.

Another essential design influence is to ensure a particular use or activity doesn’t appropriate the benefits of a place and limit the enjoyment of that place for others. Perhaps the most significant challenge this raises is designing our streets so they are not dominated by cars, where possible.

As the Danish architect and urban designer Jan Gehl says, “there is so much more to walking than walking!”

Apart from keeping us physically healthy, it stimulates our minds and integrates us better into our surroundings.

Thus, we need to privilege walking and cycling, still allowing cars as an essential ingredient but not so they taint their surroundings. This can help make places “experience-nutritious” by offering a range of experiences. This involves designing to meet multiple needs in each place or intervention.

Finally, we need to make places “sticky” so people hang around long enough to be there when other people pass through. It is not enough to have many people experience a place if they are unaware of the other people who share it, and the fascination, delight and stimulation that can be gained from sharing a place. This means, among other things, creating “adornable places” that have an intrinsic value that is also amplified when people engage in it.

Originally published on The Conversation. Jenny Donovan is an Urban Designer and Sessional Lecturer at La Trobe University.

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his is because meeting our needs depends on experiencing a wide range of opportunities and qualities. Although not a comprehensive list, these include things like getting enough exercise, food and water, connecting with others, belonging, and experiencing beauty and nature.

Unfortunately, many of us have lifestyles that make it difficult or even impossible to meet all these needs. This diminishes our lives and leaves us isolated and unwell.

This happens for several reasons, among which is the range of experiences our surroundings invite us to enjoy, endure or miss out on.

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STARGAZING BACK IN 7000 YEARS

SPECTACULAR NEOWISE

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omet Neowise, the brightest comet visible from the Northern Hemisphere in a quarter-century, swept within Mercury’s orbit at the beginning of July. Its close proximity to the sun caused dust and gas to burn off its surface and create an even bigger debris tail. Discovered in March by NASA’s Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) mission, the comet can be seen across the Northern Hemisphere until mid-August until it heads back towards the outer solar system. Visible with the naked eye in dark skies with little or no light pollution, according to NASA binoculars are needed to see the long tail.

Neowsie is about 5 kilometers across. Its nucleus is covered with sooty material dating back to the origin of our solar system 4.6 billion years ago. It will be about 7,000 years before the comet returns and is the brightest comet since the mid-1990s for stargazers in the Northern Hemisphere.

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Neowise streaks behind an Orthodox church in Belarus, July 2020. Photo: Sergei Grits/AP.

Neowise, the newly discovered comet, is streaking past Earth, providing a stunning nighttime show after buzzing the sun and expanding its tail.

ENVIRONMENT EDUCATION

Above: Based on a 2018 report by the EU up to 85% of all marine litter is plastic, with the number one product group being drink bottles. Photo Brian Yurasits.

Below: Cut down on single-use plastics by using reusable food and beverage containers, especially at the beach.

arine organisms face starvation while their stomachs are bursting with plastic,

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entanglement - mostly due to abandoned fishing gear, smothering -due to discarded plastic bags, exposure to toxic chemicals leaking from litter, and the transportation of alien

species and microbes from one place to another. Plastic also affects human economies and health, negatively impacting different sectors, including tourism and fisheries.

Daily human activities are intrinsically tied to this phenomenon. The inappropriate disposal of plastic products near beaches causes harm to the environment and to the surrounding community, apart from also being unsightly.

Unfortunately, plastic items take years to decompose, if ever, and research shows that plastics break down to release microplastics, pieces smaller than 5mm, which are harmful to marine life through toxicity and suffocation.

This age of Single-Use Plastics (SUPs) has led to the alarmingly rapid and voluminous production of plastic waste in

the sea. Based on a 2018 report by the EU, Reducing Marine Litter: Action on Single-Use Plastics and Fishing Gear - up to 85% of all marine litter is plastic, around half of which comes from SUPs. The report also identifies the top ten litter items found on European beaches, with the number one product groups being drink bottles, caps and lids, and cigarette butts (which most people may be surprised to learn contain plastic). The other items, in order, were crisp packets and sweet wrappers, sanitary products, plastic bags, utensils, drink cups and lids, balloons, and food containers.

Curbing the release of SUPs is an environmental priority action for Malta. Several such items are set to be banned in Malta as of 2022 through the incoming Single-Use Plastics Strategy.

ENVIRONMENT EDUCATION

SAVING OUR BLUE FROM OURSELVES

Don’t you just love going to the beach to cool off by wading in floating plastic? Or feeling its crunch under your toes? If you were one of the organisms living in the sea, there would be no way of escaping this kind of reality, writes Malta's Ministry for the Environment, Climate Change and Planning. With more than 150 million tonnes of plastic estimated to be in our seas, this is not merely a nuisance but a very real threat to marine life.

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t is our action on the ground which will save our blue from plastics. Here are some practical tips to avoid plastic during your daily routine, especially while at the beach: Use reusable food and beverage containers, when preparing food and when buying from food outlets (drinking bottles and cups, plates, containers and cutlery).

Avoid SUP items (stirrers or plastic straws) and items with excessive or unnecessary packaging when buying on the spot. You can do without these items.

Ask for the right products, such as reusable straws or cloth bags.

Dispose properly of all items, including cigarette butts. A portable pocket ash-tray can do the trick!

Carry waste bags with you (including those for recyclable

Marine organisms often face entanglement, mostly due to abandoned fishing gear. Photo Angela Compagnone

waste) when at your yearly family beach BBQ tradition! Avoid littering at all costs! While at it, why not use organic waste bags to dispose of unwanted leftovers too.

Through small changes in our daily choices, we can all contribute to Saving Our Blue. For more practical tips and information on ongoing marine-related environmental initiatives, follow the Saving Our Blue Campaign on Facebook and Instagram.

Stay tuned to hear more about our beach clean-ups this summer! The Saving Our Blue Campaign is an initiative run by the Ministry for the Environment, Climate Change and Planning, with the aim of preventing the negative impacts of littering and the consumption of single-use plastics on the coastal and marine environment.

Be part of the solution, not the pollution!

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EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

THE MALTESE DOER She is the first Maltese MEP to serve in the top echelons of a political group within the European Parliament. She achieved this role after going against some of the strongest European car manufacturers and delivered an EU-wide legislation to reduce car emissions. The influential Politico magazine called her ‘a doer’, recognising her ability to build progressive alliances on both the environment and migration issues. MEP Miriam Dalli discusses her sixth year as a Member of the European Parliament. Photograph Bernard Polidano.

his is her first year as the Vice of President of the Socialists and Democrats Group, which is the umbrella family of Malta’s Labour Party. As Vice President, she is responsible for the Group’s policy on the European Green Deal as well as the Group’s Communications. She is a full member of the EP’s committee on the environment, public health and food safety and a member of the civil liberties committee and the committee on industry, research and energy.

Additionally, she has just been appointed member of the newly set up special committee on beating cancer and also serves as the vice-chair of the MEPs Against Cancer (MAC).

Her work attracted the interest of other networks. Recently, she was appointed on the Board of Trustees of one of the most innovative think-tanks in Europe, Friends of Europe, and was also asked to join the extended board of EUFORES which brings together leading MEPs on energy issues.

Despite a clearly active calendar in Brussels, Miriam is also very active in Malta too. Together with a number of volunteers, Miriam is leading a project entitled ‘Small Changes Big Impact’, with the aim of bringing about tangible change across various sectors through small changes in our daily activities.

The project targets the environment, sustainability, economic growth and energy efficiency amongst others.

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Miriam Dalli’s work in the EP on the legislation to reduce cars emission saw her being appointed as the chair of a commission in Malta, tasked with recommending a cut-off date for the importation of vehicles running on internal combustion engines.

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he also heads the Labour Party’s LEAD programme, which is now in its third year and aims to increase female participation in politics.

With all these commitments and family life, did the COVID pandemic disrupt her work? "To the contrary", she says, "if anything the work has increased as more meetings keep happening!"

Miriam has always been a big advocate of remote working: it saves time, reduces traffic and allows for flexibility.

"Technology", she adds, "has made remote working easier and where possible companies should be encouraged to keep the option available to workers."

Despite working from Malta, Miriam still pushed several proposals for the EU’s strategy post-COVID, ranging from health to the joint procurement of medicines and medical products, to the green deal and sustainable economic growth.

She is currently working on addressing emissions from cars in real-time as well as the future Hydrogen strategy.

So is Miriam looking forward to the summer recess? Her answer is brief: “Very much so!” she says with a laugh.

Politico magazine named Miriam Dalli ‘a doer’. She sits on the Board of Trustees of Friends of Europe, one of the most European innovative think-tanks, and was asked to join EUFORES, joining leading MEPs on energy issues. As well as serving as the vice-chair of MEPs Against Cancer, she is now a member of the EP’s special committee on beating cancer

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

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REALITY CHECK

BESITY IS A KILLER. Many people still perceive being overweight or obese as a ‘cosmetic’ issue and don’t realise the serious health implications it has.

When someone is on medication for high cholesterol or high blood pressure, something is going wrong inside their body, and medication is not fixing the problem, but merely controlling it from getting worse. If you drive a car with a faulty engine and you don’t fix it, sooner or later the car will break down. High blood pressure and high cholesterol are risk factors for heart disease and stroke, and if you don’t fix them, sooner or later the body will break down.

According to the Malta Annual Mortality Report 2013, 40.1% of all deaths in Malta were due to heart disease and cerebrovascular disease, and an additional 3.2% deaths were attributable to diabetes. That’s over 1,400 fatalities every year.

Malta has gone into lockdown for less than ten COVID19 related deaths, so 1,400 heart disease and diabetes-related deaths every year should definitely be a cause for concern. One must also take into consideration the many more thousands of non-fatal heart-disease patients that lead a less-than-optimal standard of living due to their health condition and substantially burden the national health care system. A report from PwC estimates the cost of obesity for the private and public sectors to amount to €36.3 million annually.

WE T NEED TO GET OFF OUR BUTTS Recently, a lot of Maltese nationals got upset at Boris Johnson’s statement about Malta being the fattest nation in Europe.

Well, whether you got upset or not, Malta is in fact the ‘fattest nation’ in Europe. Sometimes the truth hurts when someone tells it to your face. However, rather than get offended about it, we should reflect on what can be done to improve this serious health situation, both on an individual as well as a nation-wide level writes Richard Geres, Fitness Consultant & Registered Nutritionist.

HEALTH & FITNESS

HE NATIONAL ANTI-OBESITY STRATEGY. The government launched an anti-obesity strategy in 2012, which includes a Healthy Lifestyle Promotion Act, enacted in 2016 with the aim of fostering an inter-ministerial lifelong approach supporting physical education and healthy eating. The causes of obesity are acknowledged to be multi-factorial, but diet and exercise still play a primary role when it comes to weight-gain or weight-loss. The energy equation still applies and consuming more calories than the body can metabolise ultimately leads to weight gain.

Consequently, to reduce weight, more calories need to be burnt on a day to day basis than are consumed by food and drink. Therefore, the main requirements to achieve weight-loss are to eat less energy, move more, or do a combination of both. Exercise, performed in a regular, longterm fashion, therefore, plays a key role in any anti-obesity strategy.

The Malta Physical Activity Fact Sheet 2018 showed that only 36% of adults meet the minimum recommended physical activity levels.

The rates for children and senior citizens are even lower (25% and 28% respectively). A 2012 analysis by the prestigious medical journal The Lancet showed that Malta was one of the most sedentary populations on earth. Clearly, in terms of exercise, there is lots of room for improvement in Malta.

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HIS GADGET REALLY WORKS. I recently received an Apple watch as a gift. I had been using a top-level sports watch from a different brand for quite a while, and so was hesitant to make the change initially. However, after making the switch to test the Apple watch I became increasingly impressed by how much it motivated me to complete my daily physical activity. What sets it apart from other sports watches I know is one feature: the 3

THE APPLE WATCH ACTIVITY RINGS. Move more, stand up more, exercise more. Close your rings every day!

activity rings.

This app on the watch tracks the user’s movement throughout the day and encourages the user to meet his or her fitness goals. The app tracks how often you stand up, how much you move, and how many minutes of exercise you do. Three coloured rings summarize your progress. The goal is simple: Close all the 3 rings every day. This means: Do enough movement to achieve your desired active calorie burn (all movement counts), get off your butt at least once every hour, and complete at least 30 minutes of exercise throughout the day.

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ATA MAKES US ACCOUNTABLE. To snap us out of our inactive lifestyle and the denial of being inactive, we need a daily reality check.

Technology allows us to check at a glance how much energy we have expended throughout the day, how much time we have spent sitting down and how little exercise we have done. The benefits apply to everyone, however specifically obese and diabetic patients should be encouraged to use such technology as part of their medical treatment.

On a national level, how can we incentivise the population to become more physically active?

Can we reward their regular physical activity with tax incentives and instead increase the taxation of sugary and fattening foods and drinks? It’s time for a radical, trend-setting exercise strategy, and data from smart devices could help in the implementation and supervision of such a strategy. Our country is small enough to effectively launch such an experiment. Let’s become a trendsetter and role model for other nations in the fight against obesity!

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COFFEE TABLE

When the owners lost their beloved summer house on Fishers Island to fire, which destroyed everything except for three acres of mature gardens, they opted for a transparent pavilion in its place. Trellised overhangs shield the house from the sun like parasols. In the living room, a welded Richard Stankiewicz steel sculpture overlooks the garden, Myron Stout’s Apollo floats above a minimalist fireplace.

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COFFEE TABLE

SUMMER TO SUMMER

Houses By The Sea "This book is a culmination of a lifetime of observing and of two summers traveling" writes Jennifer Ash Rudick in her blissful new book, Summer to Summer - Houses by the Sea, which peeks inside unique and charming seaside summer homes. The 25 homes photographed in the book are varied and each tell a very personal story. Whether ultramodern or hundreds of years old, every one of these summer houses is brimming with idiosyncratic style. Photography

by Tria Giovan, courtesy of Vendome Press.

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Bottom left: Inside the library of a historic Colonial home in Newport, Rhode Island.

Bottom centre: Duncan, an English Cream Golden Retriever, presides over the breakfast porch to this Provincetown summer house, Baxter’s Landing. Bottom right: Kinnicutt wallpaper on the walls of a seaside cottage guest bedroom in Maine which sports turquoise painted floors.

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Left: Left: The Water Side Garden on the Fishers Island property (featured previous page), with a shallow reflecting pool. Below: In a guest bedroom in a historic Colonial home in Newport, “Imperial Palace” wallpaper by Meg Braff Designs, an immersive pattern of bamboo treillage, foliage and birds, lines the walls.

ummer vacation is something we all cherish. “We long for a place to retreat to with our family where we can escape from our normal routine and, if we’re lucky enough to return to the same place from summer to summer, create traditions,” writes Jennifer Ash Ruddick in the book’s introduction.

From the rocky coast of Maine to the sandy beaches of the Hamptons, from Nantucket to Newport, from Fire Island to Fishers Island, from Martha’s Vineyard to Provincetown, summer houses are as varied in style as the people who take to the beach as soon as the temperature climbs.

In this lushly illustrated book, author Jennifer Ash Rudick has sought out more than twenty-five of the best. She invites us into a rarely seen, minimally decorated, Isamu Noguchi–designed home in Northeast Harbor and a multi-generational Shingle Style cottage in Dark Harbor, lovingly decorated by artist Apple Bartlett with a mix of painted wicker, mattress ticking, vintage quilts, and hook rugs in the manner of her late mother, Sister Parish.

We imagine relaxing in a comfortably cushioned rattan chair on the sun porch of a Nantucket family compound designed by Tom Scheerer, lolling on a chaise beneath the canopy of a modernist pool house designed by iconic architect Norman Foster on Martha’s Vineyard, taking in the view of Long Island Sound through the glass curtain wall of a sleek house on Fishers Island, and feeling snugly cosseted in a Provincetown Colonial.

All we need to do is settle back, kick off our shoes, and let the sun-kissed pages of Summer to Summer wash over us.

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Above: The living room in this Cranberry Island summer house features a buoyant mixture of blues and a lively assortment of exotic and marine objects that a New England sea captain might have collected. Left: Artist Apple Bartlett‘s inviting seaside cottage on an island in Maine has been in the family since 1945.

The interiors brim with an artful mix of painted wicker, handwoven baskets, mattress ticking, vintage quilts, and intricately patterned hook rugs, a look instituted by her late mother, Dorothy “Sister” Parish, who reigned over three generations of American design as head of the legendary New York firm ParishHadley Associates. When Jackie Kennedy engaged Sister Parish to reimagine the White House interiors, a newspaper mistakenly ran the headline, “Kennedy Picks Nun to Decorate the White House.” Pictured a chaise in the master bedroom.

T

O THE LIGHTHOUSE... snippet from the introduction.

“Ferry schedules are quixotic and puddle jumpers rarely fly on schedule, but the effort it takes to get to a place is directly proportionate to its exceptionality. A case in point was our last shoot, artist Randy Polumbo’s lighthouse on Plum Gut Island off the turbulent shores of Orient Point. To access the lighthouse, we were told to engage Captain Bob, who as we headed for the island in his centre-console boat, instructed us to “jump far and fast” onto what looked like a poll ladder jury-rigged on the jagged rocks. We climbed two more ladders, balancing heavy equipment on our backs, before reaching the extremely narrow walkway around the lighthouse’s first floor, with only a chain-link railing protecting us from plunging onto the rocks below. Inside, Polombo has transformed one floor into a shimmering, otherworldly “grotto”, every bit as captivating as its blue cousins on Capri. Experiencing it was worth whatever it too to get there. As the sun went down, we were setting up our last shot when a magical light skated across the wall, casting a radiant glow and taking our breath away. I was instantly reminded why we look to artists to open new ways of seeing the world.”

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BOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS. Jennifer Ash Rudick is the author of Palm Beach Chic, Out East: Houses and Gardens of the Hamptons, and City of Angels: Houses and Gardens of Los Angeles.

The design editor-at-large for Galerie magazine and a contributor to Veranda, she has written for national publications, including the Washington Post, W, and Town & Country. With Maysles Films, she produced the Emmy-nominated documentary Iris, distributed

by Netflix. Her documentary Scandalous is distributed by Magnolia Pictures and CNN Films. She lives in New York City and Southampton, N.Y. Tria Giovan specializes in interiors, still life, food, and portrait photography. The photographer of Out East, her work has appeared in AD, Coastal Living, Esquire, House Beautiful, Travel & Leisure, and Veranda. Two volumes of her work have been published: Sand Sea Sky: The Beaches of Sagaponack and Cuba: The Elusive Island. She lives in Sag Harbor, NY, and New York City.

Summer To Summer - Houses By The Sea, by Jennifer Ash Rudick. Photography by Tria Giovan. Published by Vendome Press. Hardcover with jacket, 360 pages, 325+ colour illustrations, 24.5 x 31.1 cm, GBP £65.

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Top left: Interior designer Meg Braff ’s breakfast room in Newport with “Swirls” wallpaper in navy and fun China Seas fabric. Top right: Heart-shaped stones, found on the beaches of Nantucket, serve as backgammon pieces on a board designed and stitched by needlepoint guru Erica Wilson. Above: The dining room for Baxter’s Landing, a Provincetown summer house.

Left: In a Hamptons home, a guest bathroom has crystal sconces and walls finished in painted Masonite.

GASTRONOMY

Gastronomic Delights

MICHELIN The first Malta Michelin Guide, published earlier this year, highlights outstanding restaurants, cuisine styles and culinary skills found in Malta, Gozo and Comino.

Michelin has maintained its benchmark of some of the greatest cuisines in the world for more than 120 years since its establishment in the late 19th century, and this June I was honoured to visit the restaurants in Malta that have been awarded the prestigious Michelin Star for gastronomic excellence and to present them with their official Michelin plaque, writes Julia Farrugia Portelli, Malta's Minister for Tourism and Consumer Protection.

Photography by Daryl Cauchi.

oni and Under Grain, both in Valletta and De Mondion in Mdina are the first local recipients of this international recognition and each has received a Michelin Star.

Another three restaurants, Commando in Mellieħa, Rubino in Valletta and Terrone in Marsaxlokk, received the Bib Gourmand title, Michelin’s distinction for good quality and good value cooking.

Along with these six outstanding performers, another 20 establishments around our islands were featured on the new Michelin Guide for the Maltese 40

Islands, having been awarded the 'Plate Symbol' signifying 'fresh ingredients, capably prepared'.

Michelin is a respected certification around the world with restaurant reviews based on a tried-andtested methodology and awards are given after a rigorous process in which reviewers and inspectors visit restaurants randomly, dining as mystery clients.

Reviewers each write a thorough memorandum about their experience, and then come together to discuss and decide on which restaurants will be awarded the prestigious Michelin stars. The reviewers concentrate on quality, mastery of technique, personality of the chef, food value and consistency.

This guiding mechanism has been in place since the beginning of the 1900s and was used in the case of Malta’s restaurant evaluations.

Obtaining 3 Michelin Star awards for the first time in an island like ours can be justifiably considered to be an achievement in its own right, and an important milestone for our tourism industry. It reflects the sheer hard work, dedication and determination of the respective restaurant chefs and culinary teams to showcase fine cuisine and an outstanding product. It is also a testament to the general advancement in quality that our catering sector has made in the past few years.

Indeed, the Maltese gastronomic scene has effectively transformed itself in recent years. The culinary offer has grown in choice, in diversity, and in the standard of service.

Part of the credit for this improvement has to be given to the Institute of Tourism Studies, from where dozens of chefs and catering professionals graduate each year, following extensive training programmes and hands-on experience, including overseas postings.

Our home-grown talent together with those drawn from overseas to cater to the demands of a booming tourism sector, contributed in no small

measure to these achievements. Our aspiration is that as more of these improvements take place, quality will continue to increase across the board.

This is in line with Government’s aspiration to attract a different quality visitor profile, which includes moving towards tourist cohorts with higher spending power, that appreciate fine dining as a holistic experience, that includes ambience and service, as well as the food itself.

As we strive to reach higher standards in everything from beaches to infrastructure, from transport to our green credentials, the positive results of our catering sector are a welcome example of what can be achieved.

View the full selection of restaurants named in the Malta Michelin Guide at guide.michelin.com/mt

GASTRONOMY

STARS

Noni (below left) and Under Grain (below centre), both in Valletta and De Mondion in Mdina (below right) are the first local recipients of a Michelin Star for gastronomic excellence. This June Minister for Tourism and Consumer Protection, Julia Farrugia Portelli, visited the restaurants to present them with their official Michelin plaque. Facing page: Chef Jonathan Brincat (top), also known as “Noni�, is the founder and co-owner of the eponymous Michelin Star restaurant. In the kitchens at De Mondion (centre) and Under Grain (bottom).

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SUMMER COOKING

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EASY SUMMER Summer is the time of year when we’d often rather be outside enjoying the weather than cooking indoors.

For that reason we’ve put together a number of quick and delicious dishes featuring all of your favourite summer flavours with recipes designed, written and photographed by Stephen La Rosa.

SUMMER VEGETABLE RISOTTO

RIGATONI CON PESTO ALLA TRAPANESE

Risottos are one of my favourite ways of using any extra vegetables I might have at hand. So when summer treats you to a bounty of flavour packed, sun-kissed produce and you’re in the mood for something heartier than a salad, this recipe is a good one to turn to. Any and all of the summer vegetables can be omitted and substituted to your liking.

SERVES 2-3 200g Arborio rice 1 medium red pepper, diced 1 medium green pepper, diced 1 small aubergine, cut into cubes 1 medium zucchini, quarter, remove the seeds and dice 1 medium onion, diced 1 sprig basil, leaves torn 1 litre water, chicken or vegetable stock handful cherry tomatoes salt, pepper and olive oil to taste 30g Parmesan 1. Place zucchini and aubergine in a bowl, season well with salt and allow to sit at room temperature for 15 minutes.

2. Heat a small lined baking tray in a preheated oven at 250C. Coat cherry tomatoes with olive oil and plenty of salt. Roast on the heated baking tray until blistered and lightly charred, about 15 minutes.

3. Dab zucchini and aubergine dry with paper towel. Heat a frying pan over medium high heat, add a tablespoon olive oil.

Add zucchini and aubergine and sauté, stirring occasionally, 3-4 minutes.

This can be done ahead or cooking the rice.

4. Heat a splash of olive oil in a medium sized saucepan over medium

heat. Add onion, red pepper and green pepper.

Season with a pinch of salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables have softened, 5-10 minutes.

5. Add rice to the pan, turn heat to low, continue to cook, stirring gently but constantly for 3 minutes.

Add 300ml of stock or water. Simmer over medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring gently with a rubber spatula to prevent the rice from sticking. Add 300ml more stock once the liquid has reduced to almost nothing. Cook over medium heat while stirring gently for a further 5 minutes.

6. Add zucchini and aubergine and incorporate into the rice.

7. Once liquid has evaporated again add 100ml more stock or water. Cook while stirring until liquid has almost completely evaporated.

Taste to check rice, it should be slightly al dente finish but not crunchy. If undercooked add a splash of water or stock and continue to cook while stirring.

8. Once the risotto is tender and has a flowing consistency, remove from heat. Add grated parmesan, blistered cherry tomatoes, a generous amount of good extra virgin olive oil and torn basil leaves. Fold to incorporate and serve immediately.

This summery pasta sauce can easily be prepared in the time it takes to boil the pasta. This recipe is perfect for using overripe tomatoes slowly going off on your kitchen counter. The sauce is equally delicious on pasta or served as a dip or sandwich spread.

SERVES 2-3 250g rigatoni 2 large ripe tomatoes, chopped 30g almonds 4 sprigs basil (roughly 25g picked leaves) 2 cloves garlic 40g Pecorino, finely grated 2tbsp extra virgin olive oil salt, pepper and extra virgin olive oil to taste 1. In a pestle and mortar, grind garlic and almonds together. Grind in basil and a pinch of salt. Add tomatoes and grind until a paste forms. Add Pecorino (save some for garnishing) and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Grind to a thick paste.

Season to taste with salt and pepper.

2. Alternatively using a blender, food processor or immersion blender, grind garlic and almonds, pulsing a few times.

Add basil, tomato and olive oil, blend until homogenous. Add most of the Pecorino, pulse to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

3. Alternatively for a coarser version of the sauce, chop garlic finely. Cut tomatoes in half and grate on a box grater. Combine with Pecorino, olive oil, salt and pepper. Refrigerate.

4. Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling well-salted water until almost cooked, about 10 minutes.

5. Drain pasta, reserving some pasta cooking liquid. Add pasta with pesto in a large bowl, stirring to coat the pasta.

Add a few tablespoons of pasta cooking liquid to loosen the sauce. Drizzle lightly with olive oil and mix with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon until pasta is coated.

6. Serve immediately with plenty of grated Pecorino or cool and refrigerate for a pasta salad.

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SUMMER COOKING HORIATIKI GREEK SALAD WITH FETA SERVES 2-3 250g ripe tomatoes, cut into 1/8ths 100g cherry tomatoes, halved 250g cucumber, chopped into cubes 1 medium onion, sliced* 1 red and 2 green peppers, chopped 150g block feta 2tsp oregano 8 olives 1tbsp capers 1 lemon salt, pepper, extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice to taste

If you have a good stock of summer vegetables and are unsure what to do with them, couple them with pantry staples like capers, olives and extra virgin olive oil to make a quick, refreshing salad.

1. Combine all vegetables.

2. For the vinaigrette remove stone from 2 olives by pressing your palm against them on a chopping board.

Combine pitted olives with 1tsp capers, mince finely.

Place in a jar. Add half oregano, zest from lemon and juice from half lemon. Mix to combine. Add a generous amount of olive oil, salt and 44

pepper. Stir to combine.

3. Destone remaining olives and split into 2-3 pieces.

Season salad with vinaigrette and garnish with olive and capers.

4. Season feta with oregano and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, and set over salad.

The salad is typically served as a whole block of feta over the salad but, if you prefer,

feel free to chop into smaller pieces. Allow everything to sit at room temperature for 1015 minutes and serve. When food is cold, some flavours, especially savoury ones, are much milder. The flavour of the cheese becomes more pronounced, and the texture becomes softer when allowed to come to room temperature. Keep these

both in mind when serving a cold salad or cheese plate. A few minutes out of the fridge makes a whole world of difference in terms of flavour.

*If you like the flavour of raw onions but dislike the harshness, place the sliced onion into a strainer or sieve and run cold water over them to reduce the intensity.

SUMMER COOKING

CHICKEN CACCIATORE WITH ROSEMARY MASHED POTATOES The combination of flavours of rosemary, tomato and chicken is a great example of a ingredients coming together to create something greater than the sum of their parts. This is a great go to dish when you’re in the mood for something rustic and comforting.

SERVES 2-3 2 chicken legs, split into leg and thigh 1 medium onion, diced 1 can tomatoes 150g chestnut mushrooms, cut in half 3 sprigs rosemary 3 cloves garlic, sliced 6 black olives 2 bay leaves 2 medium sized potatoes, scrubbed

1. Preheat oven to 160C. Season chicken liberally with salt. Heat a wide bottomed pan over medium high heat. Add a small splash of olive oil, place chicken in the pan skin side down. Brown both sides well, rotating colour evenly, after roughly 5 minutes. Remove chicken from the pan to a plate.

2. Add another splash of olive oil.

Add mushrooms, season generously with salt. Brown evenly, stirring every few minutes, and remove from pan.

3. Add more olive oil, onions and a pinch of salt. Cook until lightly coloured, stirring occasionally. Add garlic, sprig rosemary, bay leaf, several grinds of freshly cracked black pepper, cook for 2 minutes.

4. Add mushrooms back to the pan.

Add canned tomatoes, rinse the can, add contents to the pan. Add olives and stir to combine. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add chicken back in the pan so that they are mostly covered but with the skin side just out of the sauce.

5. Place the pan in a 160°c oven until chicken is cooked and sauce is reduced to the point where it is not too liquidy and clings to the chicken well, about 30 minutes.

6. For the mashed potatoes, place potatoes (with their skins on) in a pot of water. Bring to a boil and cook until tender, 30-40 minutes.

Check by piercing with a knife.

7. Drain, cut in half and remove peel with a small knife. Add potato flesh back to the pot and mash with a potato masher or fork, or pass through a sieve. Chop remaining rosemary, add to mash. Add a few knobs of butter and a light splash of milk. Stir to combine, season well with salt and pepper. Keep warm by pressing cling film onto the surface of the mash without leaving space for air to dry out the surface and form a crust.

8. When ready to eat, add a splash of milk and warm again. Spoon mash onto plates. Top with chicken and plenty of sauce.

Follow @stephen.la.rosa on Instagram. These recipes were produced for Mediterranean Culinary Academy’s recently introduced concept, Recipe Box, which contains everything you need to prepare delicious food, conveniently delivered right to your door. For more information, recipes and hands-on culinary workshops mcamalta.com 45

ART AND NATURE SANCTUARIES

A NOTE ON TREES Herman Hesse, the German poet and philosopher, on what trees teach us about life, happiness and belonging.

F

“

or me, trees have always been the most penetrating preachers.

I revere them when they live in tribes and families, in forests and groves. And even more I revere them when they stand alone. They are like lonely persons. Not like hermits who have stolen away out of some weakness, but like great, solitary men, like Beethoven and Nietzsche. In their highest boughs the world rustles, their roots rest in infinity; but they do not lose themselves there, they struggle with all the force of their lives for one thing only: to fulfil themselves according to their own laws, to build up their own form, to represent themselves. Nothing is holier, nothing is more exemplary than a beautiful, strong tree. When a tree is cut down and reveals its naked death-wound to the sun, one can read its whole history in the luminous, inscribed disk of its trunk: in the rings of its years, its scars, all the struggle, all the suffering, all the sickness, all the happiness and prosperity stand truly written, the narrow years and the luxurious years, the attacks withstood, the storms endured. And every young farm boy knows that the hardest and noblest wood has the narrowest rings, that high on the mountains and in continuing danger the most indestructible, the strongest, the ideal trees grow.

Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life.

A tree says: A kernel is hidden in me, a spark, a thought, I am life from eternal life. The attempt and the risk that the eternal mother took with me is unique, unique the form and veins of my skin, unique the smallest play of leaves in my branches and the smallest scar on my bark.

I was made to form and reveal the eternal in my smallest special detail.

A tree says: My strength is trust. I know nothing about my fathers, I know nothing about the thousand children that every year spring out of me. I live out the secret of my seed to the very end, and I care for nothing else. I trust that God is in me. I trust that my labor is holy. Out of this trust I live.

When we are stricken and cannot bear our lives any longer, then a tree has something to say to us: Be still! Be still! Look at me! Life is not easy, life is not difficult. Those are childish thoughts. Let God speak within you, and your thoughts will grow silent. You are anxious because your path leads away from mother and home. But every step and every day lead you back again to the mother. Home is neither here nor there.

Home is within you, or home is nowhere at all.

A longing to wander tears my heart when I hear trees rustling in the 46

wind at evening. If one listens to them silently for a long time, this longing reveals its kernel, its meaning. It is not so much a matter of escaping from one's suffering, though it may seem to be so. It is a longing for home, for a memory of the mother, for new metaphors for life. It leads home. Every path leads homeward, every step is birth, every step is death, every grave is mother.

So the tree rustles in the evening, when we stand uneasy before our own childish thoughts: Trees have long thoughts, long-breathing and restful, just as they have longer lives than ours. They are wiser than we are, as long as we do not listen to them. But when we have learned how to listen to trees, then the brevity and the quickness and the childlike hastiness of our thoughts achieve an incomparable joy. Whoever has learned how to listen to trees no longer wants to be a tree. He wants to be nothing except what he is. That is home. That is happiness.�

Herman Hesse (1877 - 1962). Translation of a prose poem that first appeared in Bäume. Betrachtungen und Gedichte, an anthology of works by various authors on trees. Image: Borghese Gardens, Rome.

Photograph by Antonia Felipe.