Anniversary Vacation Notes 2017: Day 7: 2/22: Wednesday: Valletta, Malta

Malta. It’s that tiny smudge on your computer monitor just below Sicily. Of course, I wasn’t always so well versed in geography. If someone had handed me a map a few months ago and tasked me with finding Malta, I’d have begun the search in the Pacific, around Australia. Today, I can smugly say that, yes, I know exactly where it is. And once you’ve located Malta, finding Valetta is easy. 

The official language spoken by the people of Malta is Maltavion. It’s hard to describe and for someone as linguistically challenged as myself. It’s even harder to enunciate. To my ears it sounds like a mix of Greek and Italian or maybe German, with Arabic roots. Luckily for the many mono-lingual tourists who visit this island nation every year, Malta is, or once was, a member of the British Commonwealth.  I’m not exactly sure what it means to be a Commonwealth nation, but for Malta it does mean that most people speak English and that cars are driven on the wrong side of the road.

We’ve been on several cruises and have come to expect some bureaucratic delays when it comes to getting off a ship. In spite of the fact that cruise ships show up one after the other and contribute significantly to the local economy, most local customs officials act as though they’ve been caught unaware when one shows up. The end result is that a 9:00AM departure can sometimes be delayed by as much as 60 minutes. Or, as was the case in Rome, actually the port city of Civitavecchia, up to 6 hours. Valletta turned out to be the exception to the rule. We were able to get off the ship almost immediately after docking.  

Wearing only a short-sleeved shirt, and of course pants and shoes and such, we walked through the terminal gates, without the need to push through the usual gaggle of vendors and headed straight to the stairway that led to the city. A little-used optional elevator was available to the left of the stairs. In hindsight, a light jacket would have been a good idea for those cooler moments when we weren’t bathed in sunlight.  

Using an approach we had taken previously, with varying degrees of success, our excursion plan was no plan.  Naturally, that’s not entirely true. We had checked the ship’s planned excursions and even Googled Malta in order to get a feel for what might be a plausible six-hour adventure. Similar to the brilliant plan that we had concocted for Palermo, we opted to use the Hop-On/Hop-Off bus as our primary means of transportation. Luckily, the bus-operations on Malta seemed more straight-forward than they had been in Palermo. 

The ride was pleasant, and we passed by many places that, given the time, we would have liked to have stopped at and actually visited. These included such stops as the San Anton Garden, Balzan, Ta’Qali Crafts Village and the Aviation Museum. However, we had already decided that the one place we didn’t want to miss was the Silent City of Mdina. That would be our first stop.  

The city of Mdina was founded around 700 B.C., so nobody remembers what happened to the missing vowel. We were able to hop-off the bus right outside the old-city walls, very near to the main entrance.

Almost immediately we were descended upon by the guided-tour, horse-drawn carriage drivers. Initially it seemed that sitting in a small carriage behind the back-end of a horse might be a fun thing to do. However, at a cost of 35 Euros, we decided it would be just as well to walk. But the drivers were not so easily discouraged by our dismissal.

“30 Euros,” they asked?

“No, 20 Euros,” we said.

“That’s crazy,” they said.

“OK, then” and we continued toward the gate.

“Wait, wait,” a voice called to us. “20 Euros. We’ll do it.”

Having unexpectedly won our haggling war we climbed aboard our carriage and began our ride into the Silent City.

            I’m not exactly sure why it’s called the silent city. It may be because there is a convent within its walls. That probably keeps some of the revelers at bay. Mdina also happens to be, mostly, a no-car zone, although there are some exceptions, near the main gate, where certain vehicles may enter for special purposes. Elsewhere in the city the roads are too narrow for a four-wheel, motorized vehicle. Even our horse was feeling claustrophobic at times.

Inside the walls there is no uncovered earth on which to walk on. Every available surface, with the exception of a few box-gardens, is paved, I believe with limestone, but I may be mistaken. In any event the “limestone” hasn’t flaked away. Instead the centuries of foot traffic have polished the stones to an almost glass-like finish. I image this place would be slicker than ice in even the slightest rain.

The city of Mdina may have been founded around 700 B.C. but, as is typical, what stands today is the end result of centuries of construction and growth. There are influences of Phoenicians, Byzantines, Arabs, and of course, the Knights of Malta. The knight’s main contribution was the wall than envelopes the city. Apparently the knights were unable to sleep at night without a big wall.

Typical of the older cities in the Mediterranean region are the narrow and labyrinthine streets. Once again we were informed of the necessity to design a town that would be difficult for pirates to plunder and even more difficult for them to escape. It would seem that all reliable sources agree, Mediterranean pirates were a real problem in the 19^th century.

We thoroughly enjoyed our one-hour horse-drawn carriage tour, even if it did feel as though it ended 40 minutes short of an hour.  We learned more than a few fun facts and some useful ones too. Such as, what was where within the city walls and what did we want to re-visit. Once our driver had deposited us back to the point of origination we proceeded by foot back into the city.

From the standpoint of pointing out this landmark or that landmark, Mdina doesn’t really work. There is no Pieta, or Eiffel Tower. The city stands on its own, as a testament of itself. After all, it’s a place that has survived for over 24 centuries. And what makes that even more impressive is that Mdina is not a city in ruins. It is very much alive—or at least as alive as a small walled-in city with a convent can be. Within the walls there are two cathedrals, a convent and the bishop’s residence. There is also the usual assortment of souvenir shops, small restaurants, cafes, at least one tavern, and a five-star hotel—as rated by the carriage driver. There are also a handful of permanent or reasonably-permanent residents.

We entered the courtyard of the Bishop’s residence. From there you could enter St. Paul’s Cathedral or the cathedral museum. The cathedral and the museum each had their own entry fees, and neither allowed photographs. We did enter into the foyer of the cathedral museum, but that’s as far as we went. We may have been persuaded to surrender cash if either had allowed photographs.

Our decision not to enter St. Paul’s was validated just a few short meters where, adjacent to the convent, was the Church of the Annunciation. Admission was free AND they allowed photography.

Of course, we can’t know for sure but I suspect that the Church of the Annunciation was no less stunning than St. Paul’s may have been. As a bonus we have the photographs to make our case! There were a few signs posted inside the Church of the Annunciation indicating that there was ongoing restoration. It’s possible that the cathedral was structurally unsound and about to collapse on our heads, but we saw no signs of damage, nor any indication that any restoration work was underway.

Officially the Church of the Annunciation’s design is Baroque.  In a way, Baroque simply means gaudy, but the craftsmanship on display, from murals to statues is of such high quality that one is overwhelmed by the beauty and ignores the otherwise over-stuffed aspect. Prominent within Church of the Annunciation is a carved wooden frame, lightly gilded. Also a statue of Our Lade of Mt. Carmel is prominently displayed.

After being sufficiently awe-struck in the Church of the Annunciation we poked around a few gift shops, where a few significant purchases were made.  We stopped for lunch in a hidden café. I say hidden because in order to get there you walked through the front entryway of what appeared to be a centuries old forerunner to a New York City apartment building. The café occupied a courtyard that was open to the sky, as well as an interior space in the far side for the building. We had a fine lunch at the restaurant, although I’m not sure that restaurant is the correct term to use for this establishment. The menu was very limited: a few drink choices, bread, cheese, and eggs.  Perhaps there’s a different menu in the evening.

I can only hope that I am not making Mdina sound dull. We spent the majority of our Malta time in the Silent City.  While we realized that there is so much more to see and do in Malta, when you only have a few hours to spend, you need to make choices. I think it’s safe to say that we don’t regret a minute spent in Mdina, although it would have been nice to visit places like the Azure Window, a famous natural limestone formation that collapsed into the sea only days after we’d left.

Perhaps Mdina is known as the silent city because you fail to hear time passing by while you’re within its walls. By the time we boarded the bus, the better part of the day was behind us. We might possibly make one more stop and end with a mad-dash for the ship, or we could end our day in Malta in a more relaxed manner. We chose the latter. We found seats on the upper, open portion of the bus to take advantage of the warm sunshine on the ride back to the dock. Unlike the bus tour in Palermo this bus ride covered a wide swath of the island affording us a scenic, even if only a flyby, tour.

We arrived near enough to the dock and with enough time remaining to enjoy a leisurely walk along the sea-side roadway. There were a few diversions; a school bus converted into a souvenir shop was one. There were also shops devoted to local craftworks. Shopkeepers seem to be particularly proud of the Valletta Glass-Works.  The quality and variety of items on display, from figurines inside glass bubbles to multi-colored lamps, would seem to justify their pride.

And this is where we end our trip to Malta. We descended the stairs connecting Valletta to the dock. Tomorrow will be a day at sea as we head towards Barcelona!