For two weeks each January, Valletta hosts a Baroque Festival – concerts are programmed in an array of Baroque venues across Malta. It’s a unique festival as the music is performed in settings that it was originally composed for.
We chose two concerts to attend and bought tickets online before we left home. Monday we attended our first, a noon concert of Bach Transcriptions performed by a Japanese pianist, Kotaro Fukuma.
While he was performing, a Japanese artist, Miyuki Sugihara was quietly sketching and painting to create the watercolor image above!
After the concert we met Miyuki and her friend as we were all eating lunch at the same nearby restaurant. She kindly let us take a photo of her artwork! She is sketching to create images in various festival venues and plans to create a book of prints to commemorate the festival performances. It was a treat to meet her!
The concert was performed in a elegant room in San Anton Palace – home of the President of Malta. Beautiful public gardens surround the palace. Larry took this photo of a giant poinsettia – more tree-like than the Christmas plant we’re familiar with!
Larry also took a short video of a black swan primping her nest. We learned that it will take about six weeks for her eggs to hatch.
We’re enjoying wandering the streets to check out the unique architecture.
The weather is a bit chilly and the winds are brisk – so much so that the ferry between Sliema and Valletta isn’t running today. Swell! Luckily, this isn’t the only transport option as the bus runs between Sliema and Valletta as well.
Initially, we thought that the bus system was efficient but in reality, we are often flummoxed by the bus schedules and routes – many times taking twice as long to arrive at a destination than we think that it should.
We think that Malta could be an up-and-coming travel destination with so much to offer! It’s difficult to take a photo without getting a construction crane in the image so perhaps they are building hotels and residences to prepare for more residents and tourists.
We’re very happy here but also a bit weary as there is so much to do – today we are pacing ourselves to prepare for our next Maltese adventure!