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Thursday, I locked the door and all the gates to the Menfi house and left for the Catania Airport taking SS115 east to Agrigento, then heading north to Caltanissetta, and Enna, and connecting to the autostrada to Catania. I was fine until Agrigento where I got lost. I went around in a circle until I found a beautiful highway heading in the right direction. I was worried because it did not have a number, but there were cars and trucks on it, and it did have hand-written signs to Caltanissetta. I later found out it was the continuation of the autostrada under construction. They build highways here the way that DNA polymerase constructs DNA. The highway is built in one direction first, and then the highway in the other direction is built in sections which are later linked.
That explains the frequent muddy detours when we would be directed to the other side of the highway. The highway passed to the west of Enna, which was not as impressive as the eastern side; however, it was as “empty”. I made good time despite the rain and arrived in Catania in the early afternoon. The terrain around Catania is very flat and reminded me of driving to the airport in West Palm Beach, Florida - many low ugly buildings and straggly palm trees.
When I arrived at the car rental counter to hand over the car, I felt embarassed because the car was covered in mud and damaged. The agent took it in stride, charging me 200 Euros (the previous damage, a flat tire (I picked up just before enterring the airport) and for an extra day because I turned the car in late). I will probably be able to get a refund from the credit card company because they include insurance (no deductable) - not so bad. However, I could not find the keys to the car. I asked the agent if he had them and he said no. I was VERY worried because I had attached the Menfi keys to the car keys. He said I must have dropped them after locking the car. Hopefully someone would hand them in as they were labelled with the car rental agency. I got on the plane and had a 45 minute flight to Luqa Airport
When I arrived at Valletta I took a taxi to my B&B. I gave the taxi driver the address but he had difficulty finding the number and insisted on dropping me off in front of the Turkish Embassy, saying that was the street and I should be able to find the address. Valletta where I took a taxi to my B&B. I gave the taxi driver the address but he had difficulty finding the number and insisted on dropping me off in front of the Turkish Embassy, saying that was the street and I should be able to find the address. The Residence Rouge was on a quiet street, with double red doors and a plaque.
My hosts were waiting for me and showed me to my suite (a bedroom/sitting room, a bathroom, a fully-equipped kitchen, and a dining alcove in an enclosed balcony). After telling me that there were other Canadians staying there they left. They suggested that I sleep in the upper bunk since it was more comfortable than the hida-bed that was on the bottom. There was no way that I was going to climb the ladder, and holding on with one hand make the bed. So I chose to open the hida-bed. Only then did I discover that they had forgotten to leave me blankets. So I retired to bed, using my winter clothes as blankets. I could not phone them since I did not have cell service in Malta,
Friday: I slept badly because I was cold. I had a quick breakfast with very poor instant coffee and left for Valletta. The Residence Rouge is in Floriana (a working-class district), a 10 minute walk to the main bus station and a 15 minute walk to the historic center of Valletta. So I left early to find a cell phone store. The walk the first 5 minutes was delightful through arched passageways lined with coffee bars and pastry stalls. It must be delightful in the heat of summer. The streets are crowded with cars, and the roads are not pedestrian-friendly. When I got near the bus station there was a roundabout with cars and busses rushing the wrong way – and no crosswalks. One took one’s life in danger whenever one had to cross the road.
A few minutes away I went through the main gate into Valletta and entered a different world. There was a pedestrian mall and no cars. I quickly found a cell phone store and they installed and activated a Maltese SIM card. Very efficient-it included wifi, and unlike in Sicily, wifi is available everywhere.
​The street was lined with very expensive shops (many jewelry shops). Almost all the stores had English names. There was even a red “London” phone booth. All the store clerks spoke English and many of the customers had upper-class English accents. Except for the weather I could have been in London.
There were many massive Knights of Malta buildings and churches – either restored or in the process of being restored including one of the oldest European universities, established in in 1597.
The Knights of Malta were divided into 8 languages and each group lived in their own Auberge. Out of these eight auberges, only five remain. Two were destroyed during the second world war and the third was demolished to make room for the Anglican Cathedral of St. Paul.
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Auberge d’Aragon is now used by the Ministry of Justice.
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Auberge de Baviere isnow used by the Government Property Department.
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Auberge de Castille is the only auberge that is still used for it’s original purpose (administration). Since March 1972, it has been used by the Prime Minister as his office. At present, the building also used by Head of Public Service. It is also where the Cabinet of Ministers meet.
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Auberge d’Italie is now used by the Malta Tourism Authority, having housed the Law Courts in former times.
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Auberge de Provence is now used by the National Museums of Archaeology.
The overall effect of the architecture was one of “muscular Christianity” – more Empire (Roman or British) than Greek. Even the newer buildings were constructed with large square concrete/stone blocks.
I decided to enter St. John’s Co-Cathedral. I could not have imagined such a splendid awe-inspiring sight. For over 200 years, it was the religious headquarters of the Order of the Knights of St. Johnof Jerusalem Rhodes and Malta. Its erection and maintenance in the mid 16th century took most of the annual budget of the order. In addition, traditionally the Grand Masters made huge gifts to the Cathedral. I embarrassed myself by bursting into tears when I entered the church. I cannot adequately describe the impact it had. A few pictures may hint at its grandeur – more latter when I go back.
But, I was completely astonished when, by chance, I went into the room containing the illustrated manuscripts. My aunt had told me that her grandfather, Antonio De Paule, had been a Knight of Malta. Would I please look for a mention of him when I was in Valletta. I thought, sure, there must be thousands of Knights of Malta, so I dismissed her request. When I was looking at the manuscripts from the 17th century I saw the following information on a plaque in a display case:
The lady guard told me that I could not take pictures; but, when I told her that it was about my ancestor, she let me take one picture. Bless the Sicilians for their willingness to bend rules. I walked around in a daze, thinking that I was walking were one of my ancestors (a Grand Master of the Knights of Malta, no less) had walked centuries ago. I could not bear to go now, as I had planned, to Sliema to view the modern clubs and night spots. So I walked to the Upper Barrakka Gardens through a beautiful gate. Just inside the gate there was a plaque to Einstein. I am unaware of his connection to Malta.
The Upper Barakka Gardens overlooked the Grand Harbour. You could see how first the Knights of Malta and then the British could defend Valletta from up here. I was lucky enough to be here when they were conducting the daily saluting battery, I was able to videotape the entire ceremony including the commentary; but it's too long to show here.
That evening, on reflection, I dismissed the connection, after all it was 500 years before my great-grandfather, plus he had been a priest – and could not have left descendants. But my aunt obtained a picture of him and said he was the splitting image of her grandfather. So, maybe one of my ancestors was a Grand Master - all bearded men look the same to me.
Saturday, I decided to experience the Malta Public Bus network which covers all the attractions without any major walking. I decided to visit Mosta, the Ta Qali crafts village (there was a Saturday market there), Rabat, and Mdina (the Silent City). However, the buses in some routes are less frequent and are only one bus per hour (average bus frequency is 2 buses per hour). So, I first checked the Malta Public Transport website for the route and winter schedule. I purchased a weekly pass (only 6.5 Euros) and double checked the route with the transport network employee at the station. He told me that to go to Ta Qali crafts village to take bus # X but when I said that I didn’t think it went there he insisted and firmly told me to get on the bus. After driving through never ending ugly dirty streets full of shops and apartment buildings I asked the driver when we would get to the Craft village. He said that I and 2 other people were on the wrong bus and that we had to walk to the highway (5 minutes away) to catch the correct bus. It was pouring rain and we had to wait 10 minutes. It was only when we got near the Village that we began to see countryside with Rabat, perched on a hill) in the distance.
The stop was a 10-minute walk away (still pouring rain). When I got close to the Craft Fair a Belgian student driving a car asked me where the Saturday Market was. I said that I thought it was in the Craft Vilage and that I was too looking for it. She told me to hop in and we went searching. We finally found it but did not stay because there were only a few stalls with old tired looking vegetables. So, she dropped me off at the Craft Fair. But that too was a disappointment - just an outlet mall in bunkers.
I then hopped onto another bus and drove to Rabat. Again this was a car-dense city with many square houses constructed out of concrete blocks but with colourful enclosed balconies and many ornate churches dominating the squares. St. Paul’s Cathedral which you can see on the hilltop has a statue of St. Paul exhorting the populace to virtue.
I then walked through a peaceful garden to Mdina, the Silent City. The city is walled and you enter through a fine gate. I was told that cars were not allowed in the city; however, it appears that residents (mostly very wealthy) and commercial cars making deliveries are allowed access. There were 20 or so horse drawn carts crowded at the entrance vying for the tourist trade – they are allowed in the city as long as the horses’ hoofs are shod in rubber.
Mdina was very clean and pretty. There were a few discrete craft shops and restaurants. Most of the town consisted of clean alleyways winding their way to churches and lined by cream buildings. There were relatively few private houses and apartments, obviously owned by wealthy “aristrocats”. Somehow it felt artificial. There's a plaque dedicated to St. Paul on the side of the police station-no surprise.
Saint-Paul’s Cathedral was originality dedicated to the Virgin Mary, dismantled by the Arabs, and then reconstructed and dedicated to Saint Paul after the Norman conquest and modified in 1419. I climbed to the top of the walls which are apparently the second highest point in Malta. From here, you can see how crowded Mata is.
I then got back on a bus that took me to Mosta to see yet another church. The Mosta Cathedral is in a crowded piazza where all the buses stop. It is at the crossroads between the north-South routes and the East-West routes. Therefore, it gets lots of car and bus traffic and is polluted and dirty. It is a shame that you cannot get a good look at St. Mary’s Church since it has the third largest dome in the world. The Mosta Dome is one of the most beautiful churches in Malta, with its’ huge dome overhead. This church was built over almost 40 years by volunteer labourers so it is a monument to the people’s faith.
During the Second World War, a big bomb fell through the dome without exploding and all people were left unharmed. A replica of the bomb is kept in the church. The inside is also beautiful, and mostly in white and blue with lots of gilt. The modern straight-backed chairs instead of pews are very ugly but practical.
I then went back to the residence where I made a light supper and went to bed early since I was planning on going to Gozo the next
Sunday, I got up very early to go to Gozo, one of the Maltese islands north of Malta. Alan, the host had told me that the easiest way of getting there was to take the bus at the corner that would bring me directly to Cirkewwa where I could catch the ferry (5 Euro return) to Mgarr in Gozo. There I could hop on a double decker tourist bus (17 Euro) where I could hop on and off at specific attractions. The bus did the circuit every 45 minutes and followed a specific schedule. I just had to be sure that I returned to Mgarr in time to take the last ferry back to Cirkewwa. Both the bus and ferry ride went smoothly. As we approached Mgarr you could see Cathedral on top of the hill dominating the harbour. I hopped on the bus and took a seat on the top deck.
The bus wound itself along narrow roads through several villages. Although, Gozo as expected, was more rural than Malta, it still was quite crowded with houses, built with cream cement blocks along the route through towns. I was worried that the bus would not fit on the narrow road, especially along the curves. We did pass more green spaces than on Malta Island, many behind the houses lining the road. However, I don’t think you were ever out of sight of a church (there being 365 churches in Malta).
I got off the bus at Xaghra to visit the Ggantija Temples. These are the most important Neolithic temples in the whole of Malta, built in the period of about 3600 BC (or 4000 years earlier) before by Sicani people from Sicily. These are the earliest free-standing megalithic structures before the discovery of Göbekli Tepe built by neolithic people in Anatolia. There is a legend that a giants built the megalithic structures and you can understand why it persists in Malta. It was discovered 200 years ago but there are no records of the earliest excavation.
Only one other couple got off the bus to explore the museum and temples. There is a walkway all around the temples as well as explanatory plaques so it is quite easy to understand the site. Some of the stones had graffiti, both ancient and modern. I walked along the paths for an hour, seeing only one other person.
There is an interpretive center and museum. Their artifacts were quite interesting, especially those of the human representation. These are the “fat ladies” and male busts which were surprisingly life-like and modern.
However, it still took me well over 2 hours to walk around it and visit the museum. So I missed 2 rounds of the hop-along bus.
I then got on the bus and went to Calypso’s Cave. According to legend, Ulysses was shipwrecked here and was kept a “love slave” by Calypso for 5 years. I wonder what the story is behind the legend. Too bad St. Paul did not get shipwrecked there. The history of the early Catholic Church may have been quite different. The view from here was wonderful. But why would they think this hole in the ground was Calypso’s Cave ?
We drove through several small hamlets to Marsalforn Bay and saw several new “condo” projects along the beaches. These are advertised in all the real-estate offices and sell for around 140,000 Euros for a 2 bedroom flat (not bad). I guess this is England’s Fort Lauderdale. Even the names of the developments are English-Popeye’s Beach. We did wind through some lovely countryside and agricultural parts. Gozo is considered more picturesque and unspoilt than Malta. However, it was subject to many raids and at times almost the entire population was carried off into slavery by pirates. Gozo still has large tracts of fertile agricultural land. But you still always see villages and towns.
The next stop was Rabat also known as Victoria, the capital of Gozo. I walked around for about two hours (again missing the next shuttle) climbing to the top of the walled Citadel, which like Mdina's, sits at the top of a hill top overlooking the city. It dates from the late middle Ages and is in the process of being restored. At one time the entire population of Gozo was required seek shelter within its walls after sunset. Its walls enclose a Basilica (St. George), old prisons, a Natural History Museum, an Armory etc. It also has wonderful battlements overlooking the countryside. I first visited St. Mary’s Cathedral which is in the center of the old city. I sat in a lovely small piazza and had a coffee to prepare myself for the walk through winding streets to the top of the hill. The stiff walk to the summit was well worth while. The Citadelle was beautiful, reminding me of Mdina but it felt authentic. I visited the Gozo Museum of Archeology and then walked around the battlements enjoying the view and St. George’s Basilica in the Citadelle.
I got back in time to take the ferry to Cirkewwa and the bus to Floriana where again I met with plain meanness. The bus driver would not let me get off at the corner of my street (even though there was a legal bus stop). He insisted that I get off at the bus station and walk 10 minutes to my street. When I got there he was stopping to let people off the bus and waved to me.
Monday, I decided to visit the Dingly Cliffs which are the highest point in Malta and the Megalithic Temples at Hagar Qim and Mnajdra. I took the long bus ride, again through crowded dirty towns. As we approach the town of Dingly, the landscape opened up and became beautiful. Much of it is garigue, which is low open scrubland found on limestone. Unless I had been told I would not have known that I was standing on the highest point in Malta. It was cold and it threatened rain but there were several people hiking on the cliffs.
I then got off the bus at Hagar Qim. There is a large interpretive center with many interactive displays. Each visitor is handed a sheet of paper with questions for each of the displays. You are also given an audio headset which explains each part of the site. You begin at a theater where there is an eight minute 3D film on the making of the temples. This is the only place where they mentioned that the Sicani had crossed the 100 km of sea to first land on the small island, Filfia, which is 4.5 km from the site of the Hagar Qim temples. There was a great interactive display where you tried to pull a large limestone block. You then pulled the same block over stone balls (found on the site) and you were asked to explain why it was easier on the sheet of paper. Sounds like physics.
The Hagar site is unique because it does not have access to the sea. Rather it is at the top of a hill, visible from far off. It was started in the 4th millennium BC. They believe it was an astronomical site because several of the important rooms “funnel” the sunlight onto an alter at the spring equinox. It also had a religious function because of the numerous statues found there.
The site was overwhelmingly powerful. There was one other person on the site and we used each other to give a sense of the immensity of the structures. You could easily believe why the Maltese originally thought they had been built by a race of giants.
I find the decorations around some of the doorways especially evocative. Some reminded me of the decorated stones from Castelluccio, Sicily at the Sicani Necropolis from the 19th to the 15th century BC. One of the mysteries about the temple sites in Malta is why they disappeared in 2500 BC. I think they may have returned to Sicily – I would have.
I then walked along a very long pathway through the garigue with the Sea to my left to the temple complex at Mnajdra. Again I was the only person on this track. Although there were wild flowers on either side I could not smell them. I find it difficult to believe that the same flowers as in Sicily, do not produce fragrance in Malta. Rather I think something added to the petrol is destroying our sense of smell. I think the same thing has happened at home-and we can no longer smell the roses. Although it was hot, there was a nice breeze from the ocean. It must be a brutal walk in summer-with no shade.
The Temples at Mnajdra have access to the sea. So the complex had the best of both worlds. The complex had the same type of structures: doorways, some with doors that could be opened, altars, etc. The holes on either side of the doorway are thought to be a way of barring the door.
But I thought the most amazing technology was the cisterns the builders of the temples dug out of the rock to collect clean rainwater and store it. There is very little surface fresh water on Malta so this would have been a necessary resource. These are found 250 m from the temples at the top of the hill and still collect water today.
It was a long hot walk so I was ready to trek back to the bus stop for the long bus ride home. At least the sun was setting, so it gave the row of buildings and churches a beautiful glow. When I got to the bus station, I found a better walk home to Floriana, along the gardens above the Floriana harbour.
Tuesday, I decided to visit the Grandmaster's Palace to see where one of my ancestors had lived. I really liked the gardens. For the first time I could smell some flowers. I asked the guard but he could not smell anything.
So I went inside to the same beautiful mosaic floors, chapel, dining rooms, etc. There were several portraits of Grand Masters on the walls but many were unlabeled. When I asked a guard how I could find out she shrugged and told me she did not know. It was all very ornate but cold. I then wandered around the Valletta pedestrian mall before rushing home to pack.
Alan kindly offered to take me to the airport so I arrived in time to get a coffee before boarding the plane back to Sicily. I had some difficulty going through Security; they made me empty my bag because they were suspicious of the bar of almond candy I had. In my confusion, I forgot my laptop at the security check post.
When I went to pick up my rental car at the airport, I asked if anyone had turned in the keys I had lost. They said no. I had to wait for an hour for my car to arrive and be checked out. When they finally gave me the keys, they were the ones I had lost including the Menfi keys.
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