Oh Malta... you had us at "Hello"

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Malta is a stunning country and it is steeped in history. We could have easily spent our entire honeymoon here. The people are friendly, most speak English (as the British ruled these islands for a time). Every street, every building and every landscape is picturesque. You might be familiar with their very uniquely painted fishing boats. We also learned that Malta is home to a booming movie industry; Gladiator, Troy, The Count of Monte Cristo, Munich, Popeye, etc... were all filmed entirely in Malta. The architecture and settings lend themselves nicely to these epic period-piece films. Our pictures of Malta do not do it justice.

The morning looked rainy as we came into port but it turned out to be a bright sunny day for about 90% of our stay in Malta. We spent the day with our Venezuelan friends (Gus, Maria, Mariela, & Mercedes). We hired 2 local cab drivers who took us to the fishing village of Marsaxlokk to visit the famous painted boats of Malta. We then made our way to the Blue Grotto which has picturesque cliff faces and caves. We also spent some time exploring 7000 year old sun temples that they are still learning about and have been compared to Stonehenge. Our last stop was supposed to be Medina (the old walled city). We made it to the walled entrance but the rain started to pour and we were running out of time. We opted to have our taxi drivers to take as back to Valletta (the capital and where our boat was docked). We will have to visit Medina next time.

We did have time to explore the cobble-stoned streets of Valletta where we spent some time in the shops and also visited the elaborate gold encrusted, baroque art painted church of St. John's Co-Cathedral. The cathedral is also home to Caravaggio's the ''Beheading of St. John the Baptist'', a baroque painting from late 1500's that art historians highly regard (for reasons we don't have time to explain in this blog). It also happens to be the only painting that the artist actually signed (bring your binoculars if you want to see it). The picture was impressive to view and helped cap off another fun filled day in a very pretty country that we'd like to visit again on a future vacation.

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Photos

Tout Le Gang
Andra, Mercedes, Gus, Maria and Mariela

Comments

[Cari-lynn McSorley]

What in a year?
Starting to feel like you guys left last year. When are you coming back? Are you coming back?

[Dawn]

Tks
Thanks so much guys.I've enjoyed traveling along with you on you trip. Totally awesome! xo xo Dawn

[Liz]

Do come back!
Glad to see such a positive write-up of Malta. It does tend to surprise for its size as it's deceptive how much there is to see and do here on this tiny crop of rocks. I can see you did us justice and got out and about to most places. So many people bemoan there's nothing to do, or just stay (summer time that is) in their hotel on the lido. If you do think of coming back, do check us out at maltainsideout.com as we try to post up and flag the more unusual side to the islands, from insiders - both visitors and locals. If you'd like to give us an article on your time here, just contact us. We need a nudge as to what visitors need to know more about before the come too. Enjoy the rest of your honeymoon, if you're on it still!