Month: February 2020

Posted on

When in Rome…

…we drink coffee!

Happily, we’re home now after a kerfuffle checking in for our early morning flight from Catania to Rome. We rarely check our bags for a flight but at check-in, the Air Alitalia agent said our bags were over the weight limit and charged us €126 ($137.92) to check our luggage! Yikes! So when we arrived in Rome, we needed a strong dose of coffee – had it not been early morning, we might have opted for something stronger!🤪. After a 3-hour layover in Rome, our flight to Atlanta was easy and we’re left with so many happy memories!

Of walks along the water and sunsets in Ortygia, Sicily.

Of wandering Ortygia’s curvy streets off-season with few other travelers.

Of beautiful produce in local markets.

Of simple, savory pastries that we brought for dinner in Catania, wrapped up like a special gift!

Of an afternoon in Catania as they celebrate the huge Festival of Saint Agatha.

And finally, just the tippy-top of Mt. Etna from this vantage point.

We had so many lovely experiences, learned lots, and met interesting locals plus fellow travelers along the way. We are grateful for the opportunity to explore the world, but we’re always happy to land back in our home base!
Ciao!
Posted on

Rough Seas in Sicily!

A 35-minute Ryanair flight from Malta’s slick airport brought us to Sicily a couple of days ago. We’ve always loved visiting Ortygia and we’re so happy to return for a few days.

Yesterday it was nearly 70 degrees and we walked along the coast in short-sleeved shirts. We learned about a hiking trail on a former railroad track that’s now been converted for walking and enjoyed the warm weather and great views.

Today, the seas are rough and roaring – the temps will be in the 40-degree range overnight. This is a view of the sea from our window – Albergo Domus Mariae.

Since our arrival, we’ve been making the rounds visiting our favorite places – the morning market where we can find lovely fruits and veggies;

…and, our all-time favorite sandwich shop Caseficio Borderi. Below is a photo of the expert sandwich maker – he customizes each order and starts by slicing a soft baguette. He tops the bread with house-made cheeses, roasted veggies, and salami if you like. The sandwich is dressed with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice plus a splash of honey and olive oil.

It’s totally delicious and large enough for two. A deal at €7.00!

We’d forgotten how much we love the bold, red Sicilian wines!

Ortygia is a place to wander and off-season its very quiet. Each open doorway or curving alleyway is fascinating.

Even the typically crowded city center was quiet last night after dinner.

Ortygia has many wonderful restaurants though many are closed this time of year. The hotel staff recommended this one – a Putia Delle Cose Buone – so good that we gobbled our food before we took a photo – very wonderful pasta dishes, fish, and Larry’s favorite – roast duck!

We walk by the Fountain of the Goddess Diana on our way back from dinner.

A visit to Bellomo Palace Regional Gallery was just the right thing on this somewhat stormy weather day. This 15th-Century illuminated Book of Prayers is a work of art.

So, we’ll savor another couple of days in Sicily before we make our way home!

Ciao!

Posted on

A Few Last Stops!

Many of our days in Malta have been sort of serendipitous. We start out to see one thing and stumble on something even more fascinating. That’s what happened on our final stop in Valletta – we found Fort St. Elmo – guarded by these knights.

From here we had a great view of the harbor and imagined what it must have felt like to defend Valletta from this vantage point;

had an excellent history lesson, and a tour of the National War Museum. An afternoon well-spent.

We were fascinated by this persistent dandelion which found a speck of soil in a crack of the old stone fort and blossomed! Cheers!

On another day, we roamed around the maze of streets in Rabat.

We found a cozy lunch spot at Cafe Il-Baxa,

and ate a delicious, traditional sandwich called ftira (translates to “bread with oil”) plus a filling of pork or tuna.

We’re reflecting on our time here – someone we met along the way described Malta a “yellow” country – referring to the color of the many stone structures. We agree.

Here are a few facts we found interesting:

  • The alphabet has 30 letters.
  • There are over 365 churches on the Maltese Isles.
  • There are 3 UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Larry wrote this after our two weeks here in Malta:

“The Maltese people are hard to describe. Physically, they look a lot like Italians, but with a little Greek and North African thrown in. Of course, like most places, a lot of people are immigrants. The first “Maltese” we met was our ride share driver, a young man from Naples who said that he came to Malta to learn English.  The second person we met was a hotel clerk who was actually Serbian.
Malta has two official languages, Maltese and English. Maltese is a Latinized variety of Arabic. It uses a Latin-based alphabet which, to me, resembles the Turkish alphabet. About half of the vocabulary is borrowed from Italian and Sicilian, and it has a smaller amount of loan words from English and French, so it sounds a little like somebody speaking Italian with an Arabic accent. 
It appears that Maltese is the first language for most people here, but English is almost universally spoken, but with varying degrees of facility. Business uses (signage, etc.) favor English, but can be in either language.
This makes for a nice situation for a native English speaker. Unlike in most European countries, you don’t have the nagging guilt that comes with conversing with people in English, instead of in the native language. In fact, a native English speaker is in the position of speaking a language that is officially sanctioned, but also speaking it better than the natives! 

We’ve been very happy exploring this unique country but it’s nearly time for us to move on.

Tomorrow (Monday) we’ll fly 50 minutes north to Catania, Sicily and then we’ll take a bus to Ortygia, Sicily. A place we like very much!

So long Malta – until next time!!

😎😎

Posted on

Eating Well in Malta!

Maltese cuisine is influenced by Italy with a Mediterranean twist. Pizza and pasta with eggplant, olives or zucchini; garlic, olive oil, and Maltese, Italian or other wines are commonly found on the menu.

The national favorite meat is rabbit – perfect for Larry as he is an adventurous diner and loves to try new things. He’s feasted on pasta with rabbit bolognese sauce and whole pan-fried rabbit as shown below. He reports that “it’s something different and I liked it!”

Fish is more my dish and this sea bass was simply prepared and tasty.

Maltese bread is served with nearly every meal – usually with a creamy dip made from either black beans, fava beans or kidney beans and a deep, red tomato paste spread called kunserva.

The Maltese are very proud of their bread made from durum wheat – it’s extra-crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. We discovered a tiny bakery nearby that bakes their bread in the wood-fired oven (note Maltese cross on the oven door) shown below.  According to an article in the Times of Malta, this bakery has been in business for over 130 years!

Beautiful just-out-of-the-oven loaves of Maltese bread look like this!

There isn’t a sign on the door at Trofimus  Bakery (shown below) but we can smell the aroma of fresh-baked bread as we approach!

And, we couldn’t wait to take a bite of this wood-fire-oven-baked jam tart. These tiny tarts are also made with apple or mince filling. Yum!!

Our least favorite treat was this ‘honey ring’ made with traces of tangerine, lemon and orange. It’s a traditional Christmas item and the honey ring pictured below was likely baked well before the holidays and probably why this one tasted especially stale.

We like a chain of fast-food restaurants called Eeet Well for good salads, sandwiches, grain bowls, and wraps.

As for drinks, the local favorite beer is Cisk – an ordinary lager. The local soft drink is Kinnie – brewed from bitter oranges and extracts of wormwood. We like it!

Maltese food is simple, not fancy or fussy, no slick presentation but it’s good, hearty, and inexpensive.

Our next stop in a couple of days is Ortygia, Sicily where we have happy memories of delicious dining!

Cheers!

Sharon and Larry