Today was a long travel day. We were picked up by a hired car in Marina Grande to take us to the airport in Naples, about an hour away. ITA Airways had changed the time of our flight to an earlier time and so we did the sensible thing a booked a car rather than try to do ferry, bus, taxi, train, or any combination thereof. What a treat to be chauffeured and the drive took us around Naples Bay and we had some fantastic views.
Naples airport is a bit of a zoo. The airlines don’t have specific check-in counters. Rather you have to watch the board which will show for the various departures what ticket counter to go to at a specific time. We eventually got checked in and dumped our luggage. We had time for coffee and something to eat. Then we were off to Milan.
We had to fly to Milan to get a connecting flight to Malta, unfortunately. At the time I booked the flights, there really wasn’t an alternative direct flight to Malta from Naples, unless you wanted to fly some cheapo, unreliable airline, like RyanAir. We had a really bad experience with them in the past, so never again. Flying to Milan and then to Malta made for a really long day because we had a 3-1/2 hour layover in Milan. But we had lunch and could take our time. To get to the departure gate we had to walk through about a mile of both duty free and high end shopping areas. I guess that can be expected in the fashion capital of Italy. We did see a very large Lego structure of the Milan Duomo, which was fun to see.
We landed in Malta at about 5:30 p.m. I was totally surprised that there was no checking of COVID vaccination documents. Only a handful of passengers were steered into a health screening line. Malta does require a Green Pass or other form of vaccination proof and I had to fill out an online form prior to arrival for tracing purposes. But none of that was checked or even asked for. It was really surprising. And no customs or immigration because we were coming from an EU country. Our arrival was very painless, not even a line to get out of the entry area.
We had also booked a transfer service through our hotel so when we got out into the terminal, there was a driver with Christine’s name on a sign board. He drove us to the ferry terminal for our crossing to Gozo. We took the ferry from Cirkewwa, Malta to Mgarr, Gozo, a ride of about 35 minutes.
And there in the Gozo ferry terminal was another driver with Christine’s name on a sign board who whisked us off to Victoria, the city where our hotel is. We are staying at The Duke Boutique Hotel, a very swanky place. Christine picked this place because of its association with Queen Elizabeth who stayed here from time to time when she and Prince Phillip were living in Malta before she was crowned queen. The hotel was named The Duke of Edinburgh Hotel after Prince Phillip. In talking with our Australian cousin Louis, he said that his parents, Bice and Joe, had their honeymoon at the hotel, so that was another connection. Of course, the hotel has changed since then and some of the building houses a large shopping mall and a big grocery store. But the upper floors contain very nice hotel rooms and our room overlooks a lovely park and garden.
We have only done a day trip to Gozo in the past, so we’re excited to be on Gozo for about a week and do a little exploring.