Reliving history

The Indulgence Divine bedroom was once the old house chapel.

We love visiting historic palaces and houses - it gives us a feel of how people lived in the past but, above all, there's also something beautiful about places with a rich history. A year ago we stayed at a Landmark Trust property which was also part of a National Trust museum. It was funny how we couldn't help feeling smug at the fact that we could stay when other visitors to the museum section of the building left at the end of the day. We could somehow "own" some of that history, even if it were for a few days (and nights).

Being the owners of very our 16th century house in Malta is both a privilege and a responsibility. We feel it is only fair that we share this privilege with others. Frankly, we feel it would be sad for Indulgence Divine to be empty for most of the year so, although we feel protective towards our holiday home, it's lovely to see others love the experience of staying there.

A peep into the saucy glass cabinet in the spiral staircase at Indulgence Divine.

This Christmas we decided to book some time to enjoy it for ourselves. There's always some work to do on the house so I travelled to Malta a few days before my partner to get that over and done with so we could then enjoy quality time with the house together.

The advantage of spending time there, besides the fact we enjoy it, is that our stay also highlights anything missing - things like cheese grater or nut cracker.

The best part of it is re-living its history. We are rather familiar with the house of course but relaying the story of the slave window in the old house chapel (now the bedroom) to a friend who'd come over for tea made us realise how lucky we are for the opportunity to stay in such a house.

Detail of spiral staircase

Indulgence Divine