Malta or Eurobali

After leaving Rome behind with a promise to return, we fly to Malta. Glen and Sarah are already there and have been for about a week.

I must say it was lovely to walk out of the airport into the arms of my eldest child. We do miss all of our kids and this short stopover with one of them has made it a bit easier to bear. Needless to say I skyped Kelly and madly messaged David.

 

 

After the welcomes were done and we had checked into the Qawra palace which is right on the water and at this time of year over run with British tourists, we went for a walk and a few drinks at the beach with Glen, Sarah, Rita and Joe. On the way back we stopped for a swim, then onto the hotel for a shower.

Dinner was a family affair at Analise and johnathons unit block. It,was actually a party for joes dad.

The family were all wonderfully welcoming and it was an enjoyable night, we then set off for some late night sightseeing of Mdina, before heading back for a well earned sleep.

Saturday we headed out to Comino Island and the blue lagoon. The pictures can tell the rest of this mornings story. 10 euro for a return boat ride and 22 for 4 deck chairs and 2 umbrellas and we were set.

On the return trip the boat took us on a bit of a sightseeing tour of the caves around the area.

Then it was time for a swim in the hotel pool and a siesta.

 

Went out for a traditional Maltese dinner of rabbit spaghetti, not to shabby. Then home to bed, tomorrow was to be a big day.

Early in the morning we headed to the end of the island to Marshashlok (that's not how you spell it but how it's pronounced. There's x's and o's) to the markets. Then we met Joe's sister and her husband on their boat and head out to the blue grotto.....wow.

 

After a beautiful day on the boat we head back to the hotel to shower and change then its off to where joe grew up to take part in his towns festa for St George. Lots of noise, cheering, singing, fireworks.

Dinner was then at a restaurant with a big screen, the soccer was on and Italy, joes team were playing England, it was pretty big, for them as the island is full of poms at the moment, and Italy is basically across the ditch.

 

 

Glen and Sarah left very early on Monday and flew to Paris, we had an afternoon flight to Sicily so Rita and joe took,us to Mostar, the biggest church in Malta and during the war a nazi bomb came through the dome but did not explode. It is quite famous now.

 

Then it was onto Valetta, what a beautiful town this is, another fortified city, there are so many in Europe. And the views from the barrackka are brilliant.

Thanks Rita and joe for my washing, for feeding us, showing us round and thanks to all of you for your hospitality, we had a wonderful time.

 

An accident and a demonstration - Rome

Ok the back story to this is, we were on a hop on hop off tour of Rome on our last day, you know just to make sure we didn't miss anything. We got off the bus at circus Maximus took on the imagined sounds of the chariot races, with pictures of Ben hur in our heads and wandered down to the church of our lady of M........ The one where the mouth of truth is, crossed over and walked along the river and across one of the bridges.

It's a very good restaurant area here, so we'd been told. We found a place to have a beer and some lunch, and some respite out of the heat for a while, I don't think we had a day under 38. On our return over the river Tiber we took in the scenery of the Jewish ghetto, ther is a fabulous cheese shop in here, alas due to Australian customs laws couldn't get any back in......perhaps they mail order hmmmm.

We headed back to the bus stop and were just about to cross the road (it's about 6 lanes in a big intersection) when BANG! The first accident we have seen here believe it or not. It wasn't a big one, but the girl was clearly in the right and the man was trying to get her to move her car off to the side. She didn't want to as he had already expletively explained to her that it was her fault.

Whilst this argument was going on we noticed ther was 2 vans full of riot police complete with shields, helmets, batons on the other side of the intersection.

There was a little guy, no more than 5'5 from the carabinieri attempting to stop the traffic, he wanders over to see what was happening, with that the lights have turned red and a motorcycle has sailed through the red light, so he has immediately written down the licience number, with that the motorcycle rider has pulled over and run back to the carabinieri and started admonishing him and demanding not to receive a ticket. The carabinieri....talk to the hand.

We then noticed up the other side another two riot vans had turned up, spewing out similarly attired police, that just stood in a group. The riot police now numbered about 40. The 1 carabinieri,s job it seemed was to stop the traffic going up the hill, now by traffic I mean, tourist coaches, hop on hop off buses, public buses, taxis horses and cars and the many and varied cars and bikes that frequent Rome streets.

Needless to say the drivers would have none of it,,why should they you ask. There was a group of around 700 people marching down the hill in protest of the government.

Suffice to say the riot police did nothing but laugh, the accident was walked around the carabinieri was flustered and Greg and I were in hysterics.

 

 

Roma!

Arriving by train was novel. We boarded at Revenna and stopped at Bolongna, where we had to change trains. Of course, that meant carrying our luggage from one platform to another. Now they have an interesting setup to do this. Two elevators are on the platforms - neither of which are available for passenger use. So, we had to lug our ever expanding and increasing bags down a huge set of stairs and then carry them back up an equally enormous set three platforms away. But a lovely young lad offered to help and insisted. He then demanded five euro! We soon realized there is a lucrative business in the lifts not operating! As our connecting train was not due for another three hours, we thought we would do lunch in town. Another lucrative business exists to mind your luggage. Another five euros PER BAG.....so twenty five eurow paid before we even left the train station. But the town was nice and lunch was good....

 

Now Rome....the eternal city. What a great analogy for wonderful old dame.

 

The train trip to Rome was great. We saw a lot of the country side which was quite rural and beautiful, just about right up to the outskirts of the city. After lugging our luggage about in Bolongna, an it being about 35 degrees, even though we thought our accomodation was quite close, we chose to catch a cab. As luck would have it, our hotel turned aut,to be about 400 meters from the station. Rome now has many one way streets to help fix the traffic and the cab had to follow the traffic. Cab fare was another 25 Euros!

 

The hotel Maikol is great. It is very well situated, close to everything. A family run business and very comfy old charm. A view overlooking a fairly busy Piazza Vittorio Emmanuelle. It was great to get into our room and open the windows, then the shutters and take in our first view of Rome!

 

 

We took a little walk about and got a little lost. No problem, saw things we didn't expect...Rome's China Town! Later, we went to dinner at Trattorio Lemononi. A couple more beers, wine, great pasta, bread....I am in Gluten Max heaven!

The next morning it was an early start and onto the Metro to get to the Vatican where the Pope had an appointment with us. The metro here is simple. They only have two lines. A and B. apparently every time they try to dig another underground, they find more ruins and have to stop. Anyway, line A got us to there in five minutes for next to nothing. Our tour of the necropolis was booked for 10.30 so after wandering around for a while we approached the Swiss guard in their red, blue and gold uniforms and got passed through to the excavations office. Too easy, yes, had i heeded my wife's advice and worn long pants like the booking confirmation stated, we would have been on the 10.30 tour. Instead I was sent away to dress myself appropriately and due to the kind heart of mr scavi moved to the 12 o'clock tour with a bunch of south Carolina school kids!

 

 

So after spending 49 euro on a pair of pants that I certainly didn't need, we returned to the excavations office and were passed through. No photos of this as its not allowed, but should be on everyone's list to do. Thank you Maz and Leigh for providing the information. The necropolis is an interesting place and our guide was a young Italian seminary somewhere in his early 20s. The final part of the tour ends up behind the wall of graffiti where through a small hole a glass box is visible. This box contains 15 bones, thought to be those of St Peter.

 

From the bowels of St Peters we soared skyward to the dizzying heights of the main dome of the basilica, some 870 steps, some ramps and a rope! There space near the top is quite narrow, one way up and one way down, and when I say dizzying I mean it. The view once you are there is well worth the walk as it would be the best in Rome!

 

Once down from our perch above the city, we explored the inside of the basilica, with it's many alters, ginormous marble structures and statues, Michelangelo's remarkable Pieta, we left St Peters and struck out for the Vatican museum and the Sistine chapel.

 

The Sistine chapel has signs everywhere before you enter saying No Foto, quiet as its a chapel, the reality of this day, the noise was deafening and the flashes blinding. When Cath was here 16 years ago, cameras were confiscated if you had the gall to tempt the guards by taking a photo. Every so often they made an appearance to shoosh people to little effect.

 

The chapel is a work of art no more to be said.

 

Onto a well earned beer and the trip home. Walking around the streets with a map that every tourist seemed to be puzzling over we literally stumbled onto the Spanish steps

 

The Trevi fountain

 

And on foot back to the hotel with aching feet, calves and thighs!

Day 2 was the colosseum, the forum, palatine hill, the Jewish ghetto and the police.

We set out on the 10 min walk from our hotel to the colosseum. Our tour of the underground and 3rd tier was at 9.40. Wow! This place is so awesome!

The bottom!

 

 

the top!

 

 

Palentine hill!

the beer!

I LOVE THIS PLACE

 

 

 

By Greg and his alter ego