Advertisement
Published: August 19th 2014
Hello my fellow travellers!
Today has been most interesting and entertaining! Rabat and old Mdina have quite some nice things to offer a historical buff such as myself. The bus to Rabat took us about 40 minutes but you get to see a lot of Malta on the way so it's not a dull ride. As you roll into Rabat you do so right by the historical city of Mdina, it's surrounded by high walls with the red dome of the Saint Paul's Cathedral crowning above them.
We started in the Roman Villa which is a newly built house in Roman style that stands on top of, and works as a museum of, an old Roman Villa with quite some exquisite mosaics preserved, other than that there isn't that much to see there though so we carried on into old Mdina instead. The walls are very impressive and the gate leading into the old city is very beautiful! Inside the city walls we first went to the National Museum of Natural History which had a quite extensive collection of various animals.
When we got to the Saint Paul's Cathedral it was closed, of course, so we instead toured
the city walls and just walked around in Mdina. There is one small gem here that I recommend that you don't miss, Saint Agatha's Chapel, it has a very vivid painting of when the Saint had her breasts cut off. It is truly beautiful in Mdina and the old, tall buildings provide merciful shadows against the sun. That shadow wasn't quite enough though, we needed to out of the sun completely, and of course there's only one place to go then, underground!
Therefore we went over to Saint Paul's Church for a tour down into the nearby catacombs. According to legend Saint Paul stayed here in a grotto under this very church after he was shipwrecked in Malta. That's why everything here, including the catacombs, are named after him. You can visit the grotto as well but only through a private company and it isn't included in any official package tickets. By the time we were done in the catacombs the grotto had already closed though.
The Catacombs are very spooky and very cool! It's the largest catacomb complex on Malta and it is most definitely worth a visit! When you're down in the catacombs there is one
spot which you should pay extra attention to, as you reach the 10th station (it's well structured and you're provided with a free audio guide) look at the bottom of the pillar across from the sign. It's very hard to see so I recommend that you bring a torchlight, but here you can see the last surviving part of the decorations that once covered all of the catacombs. If you want to see it though you should hurry because the humidity in Malta is fast destroying it.
When we came out of the catacombs our eyes fell upon a sign pointing towards the Saint Agatha's Historical Complex so we made our way over there but it was unfortunately already closed. Granted, the saint isn't buried here but according to the information there are supposed to be some really nice frescoes in the crypt so I'm a bit bummed but we're going to try and return here another day to visit the crypt. Things being closed seem to be a theme for us this trip (or so I thought but I would soon be positively surprised). Me and Marcus have however reflected on this, the opening hours in general here
seem to be quite bad, a lot of things, including stores and restaurants close very early and aren't open on weekends.
As we were heading back towards the bus Marcus spotted that one of the side doors of the Saint Paul's Church stood open so we decided to see if it was possible to enter and we were in luck, it had opened and it was okay to visit as long as we didn't disturb the sermon so we sat down and just enjoyed this beautiful church. The thing here to really pay attention to is the ceiling, it might not look like much at first glance but if you look closely you will see a good retelling of Saint Paul's life painted along the edges of the ceiling.
Since the church had opened I decided that we'd take the chance on Saint Paul's Cathedral as well and so we headed back into old Mdina again, we unfortunately got separated and when I arrived at the cathedral if looked closed. But, then I saw a man exiting through a door so I hurried over before it closed and went inside! The cathedral is absolutely stunning, the ceiling is
painted in a breathtaking manner and, as magnificent as it is, don't let it detract you from the amazing floor! After the cathedral had closed I headed back to the gate where I met up with Marcus, we then returned back to San Gwann for some rest.
Tomorrow we'll go to Gozo which is the other major island of Malta. There we will visit the Ggantija Temples as well as the city of Victoria (which is also sometimes called Rabat, which is a bit confusing). I look forward to it, the Ggantija Temples are the second oldest man made structure in the world!
Until tomorrow I wish you all peace and happy travels!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.041s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 11; qc: 27; dbt: 0.0192s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
taracloud
Tara Cloud
History buffs' delight!
Roman villas, St Paul, catacombs, palaces--what a fabulous dose of history--my favorite! Curious about so many places being closed in summer tourist season. Wonder if the tourist office could give clues on opening times? Good for you for seeing that open door in the cathedral and going for it.