Air Malta looked after us very well on the 3 hour flight to Valletta and we were soon experiencing Malta first hand from the comfort of out rental car. We had phoned the owner of our rented apartment to let her know we were leaving the airport, "oh you shall be here in about half an hour or so." Now this was only less than 10 km away and this was Sunday afternoon, no traffic right,....Yeh right. Malta would have to be the worst place that I have driven to date, the traffic is very heavy, the drivers are very aggressive and the roads very diabolical, but we arrived safely after a confused GPS tried to send us down one way streets the wrong way. Eventually all was sorted and we bumped and jerked our way down to number 107. Our apartment was magnificent, but the problem of where to park reared it's ugly head, a problem that would recur time and again throughout our time in the Mediterranean. parking in Malta is by and large free, but no one has a garage and every one parks on a street. Now there must be the same amount of parks (minus a few) as there are cars on Malta so finding one is always a problem. The highest speed limit that I noticed during our stay was 80 kph but this seemed to have no bearing on how fast people drive here.
Having said all that Malta is a great place to visit and we have no regrets of having done so.
Top to Bottom.
The sea is crystal clear.
The mind boggles.
The old capital of Mdina.
Yours truly enjoying the View.
One of the highlights is a harbour tour in one of the many tour boats plying for such trade, we chose the "Captain Morgan" and found it great.
Top to bottom.
Valletta Old Town.
There are more super yachts here than you could shake a stick at.
Someone has to pick up the refugees.
There is quite an industry catering for the maintenance of the many super yachts.
We were to later take a drive into the old town where there is a maze of narrow streets, barely wide enough for a car but expected to cope with one in each direction. If I get out of this unscratched I shall be amazed. Still it is a fantastic place and I guess you need to work for it.
Getting around Gozo, the lower photo is of people swimming through a hole in the rock out from an inland sea.
All to soon our week in Malta was to come to an end and we caught the Air Malta flight across to Catania on Sicily where we had once again booked a rental car for the remainder of our trip and took the road north past Mt. Etna to overnight in Messina before catching the ferry boat across to Villa San Geovanni. All was well until it came to find our booked B&B. The GPS sent us up into a very undesirable looking area of town and then, by good luck, we spotted a sign proclaiming the presence of our goal. Unfortunately there was a gate, a very large locked gate. What to do. Suddenly the very large locked gate opened, triggered no doubt by a remote held by the escaping car. We took our chance and were inside a very large compound in which there were several blocks of apartments. None matched the name of our booked B&B. After much ringing of doorbells a kindly lady appeared at a window and asked "B&B?", "Yes" we replied and were directed to another block where once more bells were rung and eventually answered by our host. "Five minutes" was about all we could get out of him, but true to his word he duly appeared some 10 minutes later. Unfortunately he could speak no English but we were promised a lady who could speak English would be along soon. She was but she couldn't, well not overly much anyway. We eventually got booked in and with a restaurant having been recommended set in our sights we were off for our evening meal. We had forgotten of course that Italians don't eat until 8 pm at the earliest, not the 7.30 that we had turned up. Go and sit and have a drink we were told and ushered to a table. Soon a waitress appeared and served us some wine, "it is complimentary" she informed us. After an excellent meal mine host appeared and insisted on us having some desert wine, again on the house. It turned out to be one of our best dinning experiences of the trip and set the scene for what we found to be very hospitable people in contrast to what we had experienced previously in Italy.
Next morning we headed north to a small fishing village, Scilla (p. Shiella) which turned out to be one of the nicest coastal villages that we had seen in Italy, surpassing, we believe, even Cinque Terre. Unfortunately I had a bit of an oops with my photos for that day so have nothing to show for it.
Next morning we headed east to the Puglia region and what can only be described as a tour of architectural contrasts, from cave dwellings to the famous Trulli houses which characterize the area.
Having said all that Malta is a great place to visit and we have no regrets of having done so.
Top to Bottom.
The sea is crystal clear.
The mind boggles.
The old capital of Mdina.
Yours truly enjoying the View.
One of the highlights is a harbour tour in one of the many tour boats plying for such trade, we chose the "Captain Morgan" and found it great.
Top to bottom.
Valletta Old Town.
There are more super yachts here than you could shake a stick at.
Someone has to pick up the refugees.
There is quite an industry catering for the maintenance of the many super yachts.
We were to later take a drive into the old town where there is a maze of narrow streets, barely wide enough for a car but expected to cope with one in each direction. If I get out of this unscratched I shall be amazed. Still it is a fantastic place and I guess you need to work for it.
The many faces of Valletta.
Another must do is to take the Ferry Boat across to Gozo, Malta's second island so off we went, they say it is quieter over there, well I guess it is but not much. Some beautiful places to see, we really enjoyed Gozo.
All to soon our week in Malta was to come to an end and we caught the Air Malta flight across to Catania on Sicily where we had once again booked a rental car for the remainder of our trip and took the road north past Mt. Etna to overnight in Messina before catching the ferry boat across to Villa San Geovanni. All was well until it came to find our booked B&B. The GPS sent us up into a very undesirable looking area of town and then, by good luck, we spotted a sign proclaiming the presence of our goal. Unfortunately there was a gate, a very large locked gate. What to do. Suddenly the very large locked gate opened, triggered no doubt by a remote held by the escaping car. We took our chance and were inside a very large compound in which there were several blocks of apartments. None matched the name of our booked B&B. After much ringing of doorbells a kindly lady appeared at a window and asked "B&B?", "Yes" we replied and were directed to another block where once more bells were rung and eventually answered by our host. "Five minutes" was about all we could get out of him, but true to his word he duly appeared some 10 minutes later. Unfortunately he could speak no English but we were promised a lady who could speak English would be along soon. She was but she couldn't, well not overly much anyway. We eventually got booked in and with a restaurant having been recommended set in our sights we were off for our evening meal. We had forgotten of course that Italians don't eat until 8 pm at the earliest, not the 7.30 that we had turned up. Go and sit and have a drink we were told and ushered to a table. Soon a waitress appeared and served us some wine, "it is complimentary" she informed us. After an excellent meal mine host appeared and insisted on us having some desert wine, again on the house. It turned out to be one of our best dinning experiences of the trip and set the scene for what we found to be very hospitable people in contrast to what we had experienced previously in Italy.
Next morning we headed north to a small fishing village, Scilla (p. Shiella) which turned out to be one of the nicest coastal villages that we had seen in Italy, surpassing, we believe, even Cinque Terre. Unfortunately I had a bit of an oops with my photos for that day so have nothing to show for it.
Next morning we headed east to the Puglia region and what can only be described as a tour of architectural contrasts, from cave dwellings to the famous Trulli houses which characterize the area.
Trulli houses and even a Trulli church.
The Cave Town of Matera.
Matera had a large percentage of it's population still living in caves with little or no sanitation, no power, no running water up until the 1960s. It became known as a national disgrace and a law was passed making it illegal to live in the caves and people were made to move into "new" housing which had been built for them.
Today it is said to resemble a small version of Jerusalem and I have to say that is not a bad comparison. Today me of the caves have been opened as a tourist attraction.
The Trulli houses are said to have their genesis in a tax law from yesteryear where taxes were assessed on the number of building one owned. The Trulli houses are built along the lines of a hump back bridge and have a Keystone at their apex. If this is removed the whole structure collapses and the tax man can go whistle. They are rebuilt quite quickly when the taxman has gone. Anyway that is the story.
I am typing this at Charles de Gaulle airport whilst awaiting our flight home. As this is happening quite soon I had better stop and get this posted. I shall finish it all off when we get home and catch up on our sleep.
All the best
David
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