You make just a few steps from this Arab world and enter a wonderful ancient city, the main streets of which - five or six parallel ones - go down towards the sea. None of them reaches the blue and fantastically clean water, but end up at the walls of the stronghold. They indeed go down, one of the characteristics of the place are the wide stairs of the pavements. Another is that most of the houses have closed balconies, mostly painted in different colour than the house itself, giving colourful sight to the streets. The crossroads - again five or six - are exactly perpendicular, the city from above looks like a chess-table. Oh, my brain is not at its best, it deals with unimportant aspects. Let me not forget about the important ones! The old city of Valletta is a treasury of interesting monuments, real gems. I mention just a few of them. The St. John's Cathedral is one of the baroque churches, that decorate the city not with its view, but with the very rich interior (a lot of the treasures of the church were robbed by the French army in 1798). Gesú, which was built by Jesuits and now belongs to the University of Malta is another temple with extremely rich interior. Definitely stop at one of the Auberges, living quarters of the knights. If you descent via Triq i Repubblika, you can admire one important palace after the other: Bibliotheca (National Library), Palace of Armoury (a few steps aside), Palace of the Grand Masters and (again a little bit aside) the Greek Catholic Church. I was lucky enough to drop in the middle of a military parade, a ceremony or performance of armymen in original uniforms, carrying ancient weapons on one of the national holidays. The demonstration was accompanied by an orchestra. The event was colourful, attended by visitors from all over the world. I could take some pictures of it (the first column on the right side). Fort St. Elmo and the whole system of fortifications are wonderful not only for themselves, but because entrancing view to both the Grand Harbour and the Marsamxett Harbour opens up for the visitor, do not miss it. The sky usually is clean, shining, the sea blue-to-light green, spotted with white waves here and there, Fort Manoel on one side, ancient cities of the knights, Vittoriosa and Senglea on the other side, beautiful, beautiful. Do not forget to have a look at one of the four bastions of the city. It is also a must to see the Parliament, which looks more like a paradise of gardeners than a serious office of legislative body, and the Embassy of the Order of St. John. I did not have time to visit any of the museums, just guess that they must be rich, since the history of Malta is so rich, make a point to visit at least the National Archaeological Museum and the National Museum of Fine Arts. When you get tired, spend an hour at Cafe Cordina, that has the atmosphere of Italy, you will enjoy the quietness, peace and the richness of the surrounding buildings. 

In general I felt home in Valletta not only because of the above described monuments, but also because the city is peaceful, quiet, clean, the shops are rich and elegant, the traffic is limited to a few cars.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you that - since I was there to save two sailing boats and my host was a crazy yachtsman - I had one of my dinners in the restaurant of the Royal Malta Yacht Club in the imposing Fort Manoel. The sight of Marsamxett Harbour and fortifications of Valletta that you have from the terrace of the Club, some 40-50 m above the sea is magnificent. So was the detailed explanation of my stout friend about sailing events in the Harbour. One of them is a regatta of seagoing sailing boats, the starting signal for which is a cannon-shot of a gun up there and the starting-line a line drawn between the cannon and a vertical line on the wall of Valletta. Splendid and very impressive!

If it is possible at all, Mdina impressed me even more than Valletta. I took a bus which stopped at a sight to be seen somewhere in the middle of the way, probably Mosta, where a church with one of the greatest domes in the world is indeed worth to see. During WWII a bomb broke through it without exploding: a real wonder that saved a treasure of humanity. When you can have the first sight of the city - that was built on a hill - from a distance of some 5-6 km, your feeling is that you approach an Arab establishment. At least this was the case with me: the surrounding desert, the fading lights, the light brown colour of the walls reminded me of Bosra of Syria. The city is called the city of silence, no traffic is allowed in it. You enter the city through a bridge and the main gate (there are altogether two of them). I saw narrow lanes on the left and went there: yes, everything looked as if I was flown by a great bird to Arabia. Narrow streets, small shops, very small restaurants in the yards, I liked it at the first sight. Then I found myself at the feet of a high wall, with colourful runners hanging from it and above which towers of churches and other buildings were seen. Your heartbeat jumps, it is so nice and unusual. From there I turned towards the highest tower and soon arrived to Pjazza San Pawl, the square of the Co-Cathedral St. John, the sister-cathedral of Valletta's St. John's. I continued my walk on Triq Villegaignon, the main and most beautiful street of the city. There are two buildings worth to have a look before leaving Mdina: Casa Inguanez, house of the most ancient known aristocratic family of Mdina and the Vilhena Palace that houses now the National Museum of Natural History.

Two more subjects are a must in Malta: the ancient churches and the harbours of old fishing villages. To study the first subject go at least to Paola, where you can see the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum is the best example of the ancient monuments of Malta. I also went to one village to see the luzzus, boats that are exactly the same as the Phoenicians used to make their boats, but cannot recall which was it, Marsaskala or Marsaxlokk. Anyway, it was a nice half-day I spent visiting the place and enjoyed the peace of the fishermen's world.

Before saying good-bye to Malta I feel important to mention that the cuisine of Malta is one of the best I ever enjoyed. The variety of their dishes is rich, full of seafood, certainly, the restaurants are elegant and the services spotless. It is not cheap to eat in Malta, but do not mind, it is worth of your money.

I am glad we shall both become members of the European Union on the same day in three weeks from now!

11.04.2004

I shall have to rewrite this page, my English (or my brain) has deteriorated.