As Fontanella celebrates its 50th year, LOUISETTE SANT MANDUCA tells Fiona Galea Debono how she created a slice of history. “Well, if you don’t mess up your clothes with chocolate, you haven’t been to Fontanella,” quips Louisette Sant Manduca, noticing a faint brown stain on her smart, powder-blue outfit. Half a century ago, the entrepreneurial young mother of two decided to open her private, underused garden, perched on the bastions opposite her Mdina home, and turn it into a coffee shop just as a “hobby”. Now, as she celebrates the 50th year of Fontanella, Sant Manduca may not be baking all the delightful treats herself any more but her popular, velvety chocolate cake and airy strawberry meringue are still bestseller menu staples – and the stain on her scarf is proof of that. The only difference is that more desserts are being made to meet the massive influx of tourists to Fontanella’s.
THIS PLACE! Oh man. I visited it in the afternoon when I went to Mdina, Malta, nearly exactly two years ago, just as it was starting to get dark. I got that exact chocolate cake and sat outside - it was so cold that hardly anyone else chose an outside table, especially in that windy spot on top of the wall.
It was magical to see night fall from up there. It is HIGH up. You can see the entire northern half of Malta, just as you can see all of Gozo from the top of the citadel in Victoria. As the lights came on in the towns, I realized that I could identify them - Valletta, Buġibba, Sliema, Mosta. It's like being on top of a giant map.
I'm not exaggerating when I say it was one of the happiest moments of my life. It was my first time traveling abroad on my own (unless you count my semester abroad a few years back), and as I watched the lights in the distance, it sank in - I really did it! I made it here! And this place is so, so beautiful! Mdina especially is a very historical town, you're not even allowed to drive a car in it unless you live there.
Honestly, when I idly wondered a while back what I would do if I knew the world was going to end in three days and no one else knew... knowing that no one would believe me in that situation anyway, I decided I would fly back to Malta and go to that exact place. Sit on that wall again, eat chocolate cake, and watch the world end.
