Category: Malta and Sicily

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!

We’ve spent the first few days here exploring our neighborhood and beyond. Our location in Sliema has worked out well. There are nearby bus and ferry stops, a grocery store, gelato shop, restaurants and even a yoga studio just ten minutes away.

Saturday we took a bus to Mdina (pronounced M – deena) about one hour (unless you miss the stop as we did and then it’s one hour and 30 minutes!) away. The cost is €1.20 on any bus for a 2 hour window. The bus is modern and efficient though the driver must have been a retired race car driver as he sped and lurched through the narrow roadways causing passengers to fly forward during frequent quick stops!

Mdina was Malta’s first capital city. The entire city is confined within fortified walls and had a population of around 400 people today.

One of the main attractions is St. Paul’s Cathedral shown below.

The interior is baroque in style and beautiful.

The Cathedral Museum next door was more interesting than expected with a large exhibition of woodcuts and etchings by Albrecht Durer plus a variety of other works and artifacts. I liked this painting titled ‘Greek Ladies’ by Antoine Favray, Malta (1789).

The Mdina city streets are narrow – many too narrow for cars – only a few residents’ cars, emergency vehicles, and wedding or funeral vehicles are allowed. That’s partly why it’s nicknamed ‘the Silent City’.

For lunch we tried the traditional Maltese platter for two – cheese, sausages, olives, capers, tuna dip, bean dip, water biscuits and sun-dried tomatoes. Just right for lunch!

We’ve carved out space at the kitchen table and we’re taking some time today to catch up on reading, correspondence, etc.

Here’s Larry busy at work.

The weather is pleasant – the temps nearly 60 degrees. We’ll rest a bit and explore more later – all is well in Malta!

Our flight schedules worked perfectly and we arrived at our apartment in Sliema, Malta Thursday afternoon with few delays.

We’re very happy with our temporary home away from home. The apartment has plenty of space and a kitchen with everything needed to prepare meals if we want. We visited the local supermarket to stock up on a few supplies.

A round trip ferry ride between our home base Sliema and the capital city Valletta costs only 90 cents and takes about 10 minutes.

Here we are on the breezy ferry trip to Valletta today.

We went to Valletta this afternoon to get on overview of the city – we’ll return to see more over the next few days. On this trip, saw lovely gardens,

A view of the harbor,

And tasted a delicious date-filled pastry.

Thanks to a few wrong turns, we’ve logged in 18,719 steps so far today.

We think there will be plenty to see and much history to learn so we’ll stay busy next couple of weeks.

The sun is setting..

and it’s time for our first Maltese cocktail!

Cheers!

Soon, Larry and I will be leaving on a new adventure! This time we’ll land in Malta – an island nation  located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. It’s 93km south of Sicily and 288km east of Tunisia.

The map below shows the layout of the islands – Malta International Airport is near Luqa,  south of the city of Valletta.

Our Brandt Guidebook tells us that Malta has the “greatest density of historic sites of any country in the world” so there will be  lots to explore here!  Rather than staying in the capital city Valletta, we decided to make our home base in Sliema, with markets, shops, and a popular seafront promenade.  While many of the main tourist sites are in Valletta, Sliema is just a short ferry-trip away.

Our Itinerary:

Lately, we’ve enjoyed settling into a place so our itinerary is simple – 18 nights in Sliema and then, we’ll stop in Ortigia, Sicily for 4 nights.  In Sliema, we’ve rented an apartment at the Pebbles Boutique Aparthotel .   In Ortygia, we’ll stay at Albergo Domus Mariae.  We’ll end our trip in a hotel near the airport in Catania, Sicily.

Malta – A Few Fast Facts:

• Euro is the currency.
• Maltese and English are the official languages.
• The main religion is Roman Catholic.
• The population is 430,000.
• Maltese food is influenced by Italy.

And, Away We Go!

We’re excited to explore this new-to-us destination and look forward to revisiting Ortigia, an old favorite!

The flight will take us to Paris and from there it’s a short flight to Malta.

We hope to have good internet connections along the way and will post every day or so.  You’re welcome to follow along at travel.woodring.us

Saħħa! (That’s Cheers in Maltese!)

Note:  The photo at the beginning of this page was taken in Elounda, Crete in 2017.