Sicily and Malta

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On Tuesday we headed further south again to Sicily, but this time to the town of Taormina, on the north east coast. We went on an tour of Taormina, and the nearby city of Castelmola. Castelmola is a village set 1,800 feet high and is a small, quaint village with a bar once visited by Rockefeller, Ford and Churchill. Vistas over the Ionian sea were beautiful and this small village was an interesting stop. We ended in Taormina were we walked through the ancient town and stopped for a little wine. When in Italy, drink wine.

Wednesday we sailed further south of Sicily to Malta, a small island chain and one of the most southern points of central Europe. We anchored just off the northern island of Gozo. The channel is very shallow here and only small ships such as the one we are on can go here. This is truly a beautiful part of Europe, full of new and different sites from those we had seen before. We chose to take a sail and swim trip, which included a boat ride to the local sites including the Blue Lagoon, the Crystal Lagoon and the cliffs which surround the island. The highlight was being able to swim and snorkel in the two lagoons, which had such amazing blue water the likes of which I have never seen before. Beautiful fish, beautiful coral and such crystal clear water. We were fortunate to anchor early in the day before the tens of thousands arrived later in the day. Such a beautiful place and so much fun.

Today we sailed further south to the main island of Malta and the city of Valletta on the eastern coast. We had a grand entrance into this very old, small and beautiful city which included singing and music as we entered. This is really a classic old city that was beautiful to sail into. Malta was once a British colony and the main square and main church is named after King George of England. Interestingly the local residents drives cars with the steering wheels on the right, but drive on the left side of the road. We visited St. George’s church, which alone was a massive and beautiful cathedral, where we saw two more works by the artist Caravaggio, including his very first and very last masterpieces. At the end of our visit, we had lunch of ravioli filled with the local delicacy, Rabbit.

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