Malta

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May 20, 21, 2008

RAGUSA, Sicily / MALTA

Today was a short drive from Taormina to Ragusa in the very south of Sicily. This is another very nice drive through some beautiful scenery through the mountains valleys and lots and lots of seascapes from the high freeway. This is an interesting grain farming area with vineyards and fruit growing areas.

In Ragusa there is not a lot to do but we took a walk to visit a local botanical garden and of course another large “Duomo” church.

Wednesday morning we got an early start to catch the ferry to Malta from Pozzallo. This was a very comfortable 90 min. ferry trip on a new, fast, catamaran. B.C. Ferries could learn a lot from these guys. Malta is pretty small so we organized a day excursion through Virtu Ferries that included the ferry trip, and an all day tour of the main island of Malta. Very well organized with lunch and a good overview of the country with an excellent guide. We would recommend this to anyone wanting to have a look at Malta. ( a little pricey at 200.00 Euros for 2 tickets ). I guess it's only money !.

Malta is only about 30 KM long and 15 Km wide. Actually highly populated with lots of people in a small space. Major industry is tourism with about 40% working in this business. One large computer chip company on the island employs 2500 people and is a huge portion of their GDP.

The Maltese are very friendly and anxious to help. English and Maltese are both official languages and most people speak and understand Italian as well. Maltese is a mix of Arabic and other area languages. Our tour included a very large Cathedral (spectacular) (Too much money spent with people buying their way to heaven ) About 97% of the population is R.C. With a few Muslims, some Anglican, and a few Jews.

The Brits have been gone for a few years now but their former presence is evident in some of the architecture and customs.

We also visited an old city from Roman and Greek times. This is a favorite place to do movie filming and the town was being set up for a new movie. From this city on the hilltop you can see almost the whole country.

This was very enjoyable, but long, day as we returned to Ragusa late evening.

Tomorrow we will head west and north to Agrigento to visit some old Greek and Roman ruins. Alice has seen enough ruins !!

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