A Little Bit of British

Malta shares with Sicily a history of being colonized by every Mediterranean power. This is reflected in the culture, the language, the religion, the food, the architecture and in fact just about every aspect of Maltese life.


These photographs are a lighthearted look at a little of the British influence.

They have however, voted for independence from their last colonial power, ten years later for a republic, then membership of the European Union and finally currency change to the euro.

Malta Military on Parade

It is understandable, given Malta’s history of being colonized by every great power of the Mediterranean, that it retains a focus on its military past. The great Siege is still remembered and celebrated even though it occurred in the 16th century.

Every corner of Valletta has a Museum of War from its most recent experience in World War 2. We visited the Malta at War Museum on the other side of the Grand Harbour. In addition to the military uniform and weapon displays, it is housed in a fortified complex that included underground chambers for more than 600 people to shelter during air attacks. We saw individual chambers for the rich people (for which they paid a premium), dormitory chambers for the poor and even a birthing room – just in case nature timed it rather badly.

We also visited several forts – walked down to St. Angelo that we can see across the harbour from our hotel. It was built by the Knights of St. John but still used in World War 2 as Allied Headquarters.

We toured Fort Renella that houses the world’s largest cannon. This visit was memorable for the display of marching, bayoneting and firing of old muskets. One musket dated from the days of the Knights in the 16th century. All this with only three soldiers!

If the gas did not get you, then the asbestos in the mask did.

The birthing room.

Robert with the 1884 Armstrong 100 ton gun.

Bayonet Practice.

Rifle practice.

Fort St. Angelo across the water from our hotel.

Million Dollar View

We arrived in Malta by high speed catamaran and have found a hotel in Valletta that has a million dollar view without the matching price tag.


The view is directly over the Grand Harbour and is truly stunning.

We spent the afternoon having a long lunch overlooking the view, a siesta and a late afternoon walk round the wonderful pedestrian streets – many with steps in lieu of road. The buildings reflect the fascinating past of the Maltese people and we look forward to exploring more tomorrow before the temperature reaches the high thirties!

                                       View over the Grand Harbour.

                                         The historic centre of Valletta has magnificent public squares and buildings.

Pozzallo, Modica and Ragusa

Leaving Catania and Mt. Etna behind, we decided to locate in the sleepy seaside town of Pozzallo and it was here we finally achieved our first swim of the European summer.

Our B&B is right on the beach and we were the first customers as the B&B had only opened 3 days before we arrived.

Exploring Modica and Ragusa on the second day via local buses was fascinating. The streets are so narrow that passing every vehicle going in the opposite direction is a challenge.

In Modica we saw beautiful churches and explored the old town. At Ragusa, we transferred to a local bus to take us to Ragusa Ibla where the old town snakes around the valley. We enjoyed lunch sitting in a shady archaeological garden and walked across town through the narrow streets, past the Duomo to catch a bus back up to the new town for our return trip. Just as we were boarding the bus, we came across a wedding procession where the bride and groom were on a cart drawn by a highly decorated donkey. We caught our bus in the opposite direction going up the same narrow street.

                                         Beautiful church in Modica.

                                        Street in Ragusa Ibla leading up to the Duomo.

                                         Wedding Sicilian style - our final bus obstacle!

                                         Modica old town.

                                         Narrow streets of Ragusa Ibla.

Mt. Etna Hill Climb

We set out for Mt. Etna today only to discover that the bus does not run on Sunday!


We met up with 2 young Chinese students and pooled our bargaining skills to get a ‘taxi’ to the funicular for not much more than the price of the return bus.

For the 55 km trip we were in the hands of Speedy Gonzales who in his younger days may have been a member of the Ferrari racing team. It was the Etna Hill Climb on 3 cylinders! We whipped around the roundabouts, shot through red lights and then started up the hill climb proper. We skidded around the lava flows, passed the Italian cycling team and just pipped the goggomobile, a vespa and a lamborghini across the line!

The mountain was rather stark with the road cutting through the lava flows from the 2002 eruption. Eventually we arrived at the base station for the funicular which was nearly 2000 metres above sea level and set off for the top station where we transferred to small 4 wheel drive buses to take us up to the crater at 3000 metres.

It was a really clear day and we could see practically the whole of Sicily laid out before our eyes. There was no lava flowing – last flow was 2 months ago but we could see gas coming from several holes. We walked around the lunar landscape and felt lava from the 2002 eruption – it was still warm! There was snow on the ground but lava takes about 15 years to cool

We retraced our steps until we met with our driver and set off on the downhill run. The accompaniment was the smell of burning rubber and the brakes were like afterburners. As we alighted, Catherine from Shanghai said "Boy that was scarey!"

We are now back safely in Catania and have completed a tour round all the Catania highlights – on foot! We didn’t dare risk another taxi.

Here we are at the crater.

Panorama of the Mt. Etna crater.

This house was buried in the eruption of 2002.

Return to Rome

We arrived back in Rome late on Friday morning. It is very hot, which is quite a change from when we were here 3 weeks ago when the weather was rainy and cold.


On Saturday, Jean and Margaret are returning to Australia via Dubai and Helen and Tony are heading off to Sicily. We are off to Malta but will visit some places in Sicily first.

Naples

On Wednesday we spent the most wonderful day in Naples.


The other four set off to visit Herculaneum, near Pompeii, which had also been engulfed by Vesuvius. As we had been there previously we decided to visit the Archaeological Museum in Naples where most of the artefacts from Pompeii and Herculaneum are on display.

It was quite breathtaking – rooms full of marble and bronze statues – showing surprisingly little damage, marble wall paintings and columns as well as mosaic floors and pictures. Some of these were incomplete but there were a large number which were in glowing colours, showing in infinite detail the minutiae of ancient Roman life.

One room was labeled the ‘Secret Room’ which was restricted to people over 14 years of age. The collection of artefacts and pictures in this room demonstrated the ancient Roman attitude to sex very clearly.

As well as the museum we visited some magnificent churches and a mediaeval castle. The churches in Naples are among the best we have seen this trip with painted ceilings, marble columns, gold decoration and beautiful stained glass.

We had a really great time to celebrate our last shipboard day before disembarking in Civitavecchia on Thursday.

                                           Mosaic floor from Pompeii.

                                           Interior of the Duomo.

                                        The marble statues in the museum were rather large!

                                        The exterior of the Basilica.  Unfortunately we could not take photos inside.

                                         Looking up at the ceiling in the church of Jesu Nuevo.