Malta

Josh and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary in December. Josh decided that we needed to take a short trip, just the 2 of us. Ok - for those who don't know me that well - this is SUPER hard! I don't like to leave the kids for very long and going to another country seemed a little crazy. He convinced me though and we went on our trip in the begining of February.

Malta is not a well know tourist location. I was thinking a sunny island and we would just hope for good weather and sunshine. I learned a little though since I didn't even know where this island was located. In February - the highs are close to 60 though with a strong sea breeze the temps are closer to 54. It was sunny most of the time, but there was quite a bit of rain during our visit.

Malta is a Southern European country and consists of an archipelago situated centrally in the Mediterranean, 93 km south of Sicily and 288 km east of Tunisia, with the Strait of Gibraltar 1,826 km to the west and Alexandria 1,510 km to the east. This little republic had the dubious distinction of being known as the "most bombed place in World War II" Malta became part of the British Empire in 1814 and didn't achieve independance until September 1964. There are Neolithic Temples to explore, natural rock formations and stunning cathedral's. Malta and it's neighboring islands of Comino and Gozo have also been used in several movies such as 1980's Popeye starring Robin Williams, 2000's Gladiatior starring Russel Crow and Josh's FAVORITE movie - 2002's The Count of Monte Cristo starring James Caviezel.

It is a wonderful and beautiful island with a lot to do. In warmer weather there are some small beaches and is listed as a diving hot spot. Please enjoy the following posts!

** Additional historical information was found from various web sites and is in no way ment to be passed off as my own stupendious memory.

Malta - Mdina and the Crypts/Catacombs

As close as 15 minutes apart are the two villiages of Rabat and Mdina. Rabat has an interesting claim to fame - crypts. Here is a little history to explaine the importance of the crypts. The Roman Emperor Trajanus Decius (AD 249-251) decided that being Christian was a bad thing. Legend has it that Agatha, a beautiful, rich devout Christian fled her home in Sicily to take refuge in Malta. She was eventually returned to Italy and was brought before a magistrate named Quinctianus who decided that he wouldn't be happy until Agatha was his. She refused and Quinctianus decided to try and convince her by sending her to work in a brothel. Agatha refused customers so the next step in Quinctianus' plan was torture. She was beaten, imprisoned, tortured, her breasts were crushed and cut off. She was then imprisoned again, then rolled on live coals; when she was near death, an earthquake stuck. In the destruction that followed, a friend of the magistrate was crushed, and the magistrate fled. Agatha thanked God for an end to her pain, and died a martyr. She was later sainted. The crypt of St. Agatha is hewn in live rock. It is an underground basilica, which from early ages was venerated by the Maltese. At the time of St. Agatha's stay, the crypt was a small natural cave which later on, during the 4th or 5th century, was enlarged and embellished. At the far end of the crypt, there is the main altar dedicated to the Saint. Till 1647, this altar was still used for worship.The crypt is adorned by a good number of frescoes. Some of them date back to the 12th century and are in Byzantine style. The others, which are in Greek style, date back to the 15th century (1480). There are 30 images of saints, out of which, 13 represent St. Agatha. The remainder represent bishop saints, virgin and martyr saints.The 15th century frescoes are attributed to the Sicilian painter Salvatore D'Antonio. These were donated to the crypt by various devotees, offered in thanksgiving. Other paintings are still visible in the ceiling at the entrance on the right hand. Being inside the crypts was an interesting experience. It is different from most things that Josh and I have done before because there are very few restrictions. We were allowed to roam free in the crypts, touch the rocks and investigate as much as we wanted. The one restriction was no photography was allowed in these crypts because of the frescos. Another thing to see at the complex is a tiny museum. They have a lot of pottery, skeletons and other things that were found during the excivation of these crypts.

A short walk down athe hill brings us to St Pauls Catacombs. The Catacombs of St. Paul are not themselves associated with Paul but derive their name from their proximity to St. Paul's Church and Grotto. They are a fascinating labyrinth of 3rd-century AD subterranean tombs and the earliest archaeological evidence of Christianity in Malta.
St. Paul's Catacombs incorporates tombs for more than 1,000 bodies in 2,200 square meters. Not all of the site is accessible, but enough is open to the public to provide a fascinating look at several different types of tombs. The photos in the post below are all from St. Pauls. In one photo, you will notice a round circle in the stone floor. That was where a table would be placed for the mourners. It was tradition to have your wake in the crypt next to the dead body. Family and friends would gather in the crypt and lounge around a table with food and drink. This was stopped after a while because people were having a little too much fun getting their drink on with dead relatives. You can see in the photos that there are shelves in the walls. Some were for alters, normally placed across from the table area. The others were for bodies. As you can see, some are very small. These were made for infants and children.

Having spent all morning in the Crypts/Catacombs, we decided to head to Mdina. Mdina is the old capital of Malta. Mdina is a medieval walled town situated on a hill in the centre of the island and is commonly called the "Silent City" by natives and visitors. No cars are allowed within the city walls. The town is still confined within its walls, and has a population of less than three hundred, but it is contiguous with the village of Rabat, which takes its name from the Arabic word for suburb, and has a population of over 11,000. It is an amazingly beautiful town with stunning views and a very interesting museum - the Dungeons.
Located just inside the city’s main gate, the Mdina Dungeons house a series of life-size fibre glass tableaux representing characters, famous and infamous, from Malta’s history.
The exhibits present vivid pictures of sufferance and cruelties experienced and the life-like figures in period costume are shown handling instruments, tools and utensils associated with that subterranean environment. It isn't for the faint of heart and I would seriously think before taking Skye and Jax there, but it was really neat to see something a little different.

You may think that Josh and I had a "day of death" from this post. We did end the afternoon on a light note though. There is a wonderful tea room called Fontenelle located near a city wall that overlooks the island. We enjoyed some lovely sandwhiches and tea only to cap it of with a slice of heavenly banana cream cake.

Malta - Mdina and the Crypts

Malta - Gozo & The Azure Window

OK - so my wonderful husband had his heart set on ending our first full day in Malta by taking the ferry 20 minutes accross the Mediterranean to the small island of Gozo. Gozo is know for pretty much 3 things. 1. Wonderful diving. 2. Neolithic Tempels and 3. The Azure window - a breath taking view of some rock formations in the middle of the sea. We hopped the ferry over - about a 20 minute ride - to drive for 30 minutes to the lookout area so we could see this wonder of nature. Little know fact that tourists don't get the memo on - if it rains a bunch in Gozo, the roads turn to mud. Muddy mud....DEEP MUDDY MUD and they close the roads to attractions of nature. Josh is not one to be deterred when he sets his heart on something. We parked the car and hoofed it through a muddy field to see if we could get pictures. I got some lovely shots of flowers, of Josh a good 20 yards away from me and of Josh watering natures glory. (though I didn't post that one!) As a side bar - our guide, Joan, told us we were lucky we didn't get shot wandering through someones fields. We got into the car and Josh decided to do a little more exploring, found another road and wandered to an amazing overlook with an excellent shot of The Azure Window and a breath taking sunset.

Malta - Marsaxlokk

Marsazxlokk is a little harbour village on the south-east coast with tons of charm. As you can see from the pictures, the sky had clouded over and yet this was still a really great place to stop. Our guide, Joan - an island native, recomended coming to this village if we wanted to have real Maltese food. We wandered around the harbour for a bit, as there were stalls set up selling food, lace and nick nacks. Josh tried and loved the nougat. (It is more of a combination brittle and candy log then what I think of as nougat - ie. milky way) We found a lovely table runner with a Maltese cross pattern and picked up some souviners for the kids before stopping for lunch. We went into a little hole-in-the-wall Mom and Pop establishment that our guide happened to be eating in. We didn't want anything too heavy because we planned to go out in the evening aand they had some really good choices. I am now in love with a traditional Maltese vegatable soup called ministra. I like to think of it as an "everything but the kitchen sink" soup. We are talking cabbage, pumpkin, squash, potatoes, carrots, barley...The list goes on and on! It really has everything in it and to top it off, it has a dollop of ricotta cheese. YUM!

In case you are wondering what was for dinner that evening......

Brusketta - dipped in a lovely balsamic vinagrette with lettuce and tomatoes

Timpana (baked pasta in a pastry case)

Rabbit in wine sauce

A light vanilla creme' for desert........

Malta - Blue Grotto

There were some specific sights that Josh and I wanted to see while we were in Malta. The coast lines are absolutely breath taking and one of the most picturesque sights on the coast is the Blue Grotto. This stunning natural sight is located on the western coast of Malta and is one of the biggest tourist attractions. There are beautiful views from the tops of limestone cliffs overlooking the actual caves. A short walk down a steep incline brings you to some small skifs that can ferry 8 passangers into the sea caves.
The water is a deep navy blue, almost like you took a glass of water and dropped blue food coloring into it. Where sunlight hits it, above stretches of white sand, the water color becomes an intense turquios blue. The visability is insane making the waters around Malta a diving hot spot. You can look through the water straight to the sea floor, as deep as 20 feet in some places. Inside the caves, you are surronded by a peaceful silence, stalactites and a true sense of wonder. When the waves cause the water level to drop, you can see different colors of rock below the water line. The most suprising color we glimpsed was a maroon/pink. All the caves are nature made even though one looks as though it must have been formed by man due to the unreal straight edges. Interesting fact - during World War II, when an air-raid alaarm was sounded the inhabitants took to their boats and rowed into these caves for saftey.

Malta - Blue Grotto

Malta - St John's CO-Cathedral

Josh, the kids, and I have seen quite a few churches and cathedral's here in Europe. they range from modest to ornate. Nothing - and I mean NOTHING can compare to St John's Co-Cathedral in Malta. So, a little PRE-info before we get to the real info.
In 1530 Emperor Charles V gave the Maltese Islands to the Knights of St John and the 250 years of their rule are the most illustrious in the history of the archipelago. The population welcomed the Order in hopes that they would enjoy greater protection from assult by the pirates. Attacked by the Turks in 1547 and 1551, the Kinghts were obliged to build fortifications such as Fort St Angelo and Fort St Elmo on the north coast of Malta. The Order built new churches and palaces as well as aqueducts, and art too underwent a revival.
Now on to the info......
In 1573 Grand Master Jean de la Cassiere authorized the construction of a conventual church of the Order if St John. It was completed in 1578 by Maltese architect Gerolamo Cassar. It was designed to look, on the outside, like a military fort and gives NO indication of the opulant interior. The clock tower accuraetly display the day of the week, the date of the day and the time of day.
The inside of the cathedral was embellished by successive Grand masters and further enrighed by the "Gioja" or gift, by every Knight was bound by statute to give on admission to the Order. The inside is rectangular in shape and there are eight small chapels - four on each side of the cathdral, one for each country represented by the Knights - Germany, Italy, France, Provence, Anglo-Bavarian, Castille Leon and Portugal, Aragon and Auvernge. The Knights seemed to try and out decorate each other. Painting, gilding, carving and monuments are everywhere.
To say the inside is opulant is a tiny understatement. The walls are carved and gilded limestone. The ceiling is painted in eight vingettes by
Mattia Preti. The figures painted into the corners at first appear 3-D as they are painted with corosponding shadows. One of the figures is believed to be a self portrait of Preti. It is depicted as a man holding up 5 fingers representing the 5 years it took for him to complete the ceiling.
Another amazing site in the cathedral is the huge silver gates in the Chapel of Our Lady of Philermos. They were installed in the eighteenth century as a gift to the church from the inheritance of two prominent knights, Bali Guglielmo de la Salle and Bali Francesco Rovero di Guarena. The knights often vied with one another to give the church gifts of ever lasting beauty and prestige. It is rumored that the Maltese painted the silver gates with black paint during World War II to fool Napoleon into thinking the gates were cast iron and worthless. While most of the silver in the cathedral was taken, the gates were left in peace and restored at a later date.
Below you will find a few pictures of the cathedral. I have included some pictures of a death monument - popular for people that contributed to the beutifaction of the church - so you can see the detail work. It s mind boggling to think of the detail work that is involved in these monuments.

** Information was provided by Malta and the islands Gozo and Comino by Miller Distributors Limited

Malta - St John's CO-Cathedral