We awakened to another sunny, yet windy day. The sea is a many hued gorgeous color this morning. We still see crashing waves across the bay, but not quite as dramatic as yesterday. The temperature is warmer than yesterday, and the rest of the week is expected to be excellent here in Malta. Not so in Rome, however, where rain is forecast for the entire 6 days we’ll be there. I bought an umbrella today. I forgot to pack one; Christine remembered hers. Christine said that buying the umbrella would be a good omen and might keep the rain at bay. You know the old adage. If you have an umbrella it won’t rain, but if you don’t have one, it most assuredly will rain. So my nice new blue umbrella hopefully will do the trick.

We arranged to meet Bernadette Carabott for coffee this morning. We sat with her at Roger Vella Bonavita’s party last week. Her mother and the mother of all our Australian cousins were sisters. We have heard about Bernadette from Louis, but in all the times we’ve been to Malta, we have not met up with her. She is a very nice woman and we enjoyed talking with her. The first thing she did was to take us down the block from the hotel showing us where everyone lived, right down to the corner building that Christine lived in. The Vella Bonavitas also lived on the block. So Bernadette explained who was where and how the families were related and what happened to the apartments and buildings. It was fun hearing about it all. We also learned that the hotel we stayed in in 1985, the Meadowbank, was where she had her first job and she worked there 16 years, so it is possible that she was working there when we stayed there. It’s really amazing all the connections Christine has with Malta. While we had coffee, we caught Bernadette up on all the the Australian cousins. Coming to NYC is on her bucket list, so we’re hopeful that she’ll come visit us.


After visiting with Bernadette, we walked to the post office to get stamps. There is a gorgeous building on Dingli Street just down from Carol’s building that is just so charming, and to me, the epitome of Malta.

As we neared the building Christine lived in, she said she wanted to stop in. For the last week, we’ve tried to get into the building. It is a realty office for luxury properties, but each time we stopped by, there was no answer at the door. Today, however, the office was full of people and Christine went in. She explained that she used to live in the building and so one of the people there showed Christine around. Of course, the space had been renovated and upgraded, but the one true thing from when Christine lived there was the beautiful Maltese tile floor. Every room in the place and Maltese tile and Christine remembered that. She walked me down the hall telling me where things were situated when she lived there. She was totally thrilled to get into the apartment. She got contact information from the woman who showed us around and so if we return to Malta, the woman said she could help find us an apartment.



Afterwards, Christine nearly floated down the street, she was so happy to have seen the flat where she once lived.
Once back at the hotel, we had lunch from things that we snatched from the breakfast buffet. Then we worked on organizing and packing. We have a very early morning flight to Rome. We’re getting picked up by cab at 4:45am, so I wanted to be all packed and ready to go in the afternoon so we wouldn’t have to stress out later in the evening. We spending our last night in Malta having dinner at Raffael’s and then we’ll get gelato and sit down by the seashore to enjoy our last evening.
What a wonderful time we’ve had in Malta. Now, it’s off to Rome and our next adventure. This will be a totally new experience for us and we’ll be complete tourists trying to get around Rome to see the sights.
