Today the wind has finally lessened and it looks beautiful. We decided to take a walk along the rocks this morning before our planned lunch date with Carol. We really enjoy taking in the sites along the shore, smelling the salt air, and watching the surf. As I said, while a little cool, it was a beautiful morning.
That building out beyond Christine’s left shoulder is the Dragonara Palace, one of her favorite landmarks. It is now a casino. The first time we visited Malta in 1985, there were no buildings around the Dragonara and it seemed so far away. The building was like a beacon out on that point. Now, it has essentially been taken over by all the development around it. The exterior of the building is still beautiful. It was built in 1870 as a summer residence of a very wealthy and powerful family. During WWII, it was used as an officers’ hospital. It became a casino in 1964. On one of our trips to Malta, we actually signed up for casino cards, but we’ve never done any gambling, but we do like walking out to the casino and wandering around the point. We hope to do that soon.
An interesting thing along the shoreline in several places near the Surfside restaurant are man-made “baths.” These are great rock pools that came to be in Victorian times when the beginning of leisure time at the seashore was popularized. Remember, Malta was a British colony from 1800 to 1974, so there lots of British gentry visiting Malta. There is a lot of history about how carriages would be placed over the rock pools so ladies could enjoy bathing in the sea away from prying eyes. Whatever the true history is, these pools are terrific and we’ve taken dips in them in the past.
At noon we met Carol outside her flat. Her brother-in-law John Tabone was picking us up to go to lunch in the town of Attard. John was married to Joe Farrugia’s (Carol’s husband) sister who died a couple of years ago. John Tabone is also a cousin of one of Christine’s Australian cousins, Alex and Gloria. All these Maltese people all seem related to each other! At any rate, John drove us to a lovely restaurant called The Villa Bologna Restaurant. It is an Italian trattoria in a very lovely old villa. John’s sister Flossie joined us for lunch as well. I had an incredibly good rigatoni bolognese and we all enjoyed our meals very much. It was nice getting to chat with John, who we met back in 2016, and also meeting his sister Flossie, who lives in a farmhouse and has 21 cats.
We got back to Sliema mid-afternoon and we rested a bit. I had seen an article in the Times of Malta about a concert that I was interested in. It was a celebration for the 150th anniversary of the National Philharmonic of Valletta and it was being held in one of the oldest churches in Valletta, St. Paul’s Shipwreck Church. The other thing of interest to me was that the principal violinist would be playing a Stradivarius. We finally decided to go, even though I hadn’t been able to find out anything about tickets. We tried to get a bus to Valletta, but a couple of buses passed by without stopping because they were jam packed. We then were able to get a bus to Sliema Ferries where we hoped to get the ferry across the harbor to Valletta. That was a bit nerve wracking because the ticket office wasn’t open so we weren’t sure what was happening. We started to try a get a bus, but then the ferry came so we hurried back to the terminal and got on the ferry. It’s only about a 7 minute ride across the harbor, but it gives some pretty striking views of Valletta. Since I’ve already posted lots of Valletta skyline pictures, I’ll just show one of Fort Manoel. The ferry passes right by that fort.
Once off the ferry, we had a very steep, long trek up the hill to the city center. The maim street, Republic Street, runs right down the center of the peninsula at it’s highest, so on either side of Republic Street, the slope goes down to the harbor on either side, and it is quite a steep slope. After our trek up the hill, we had a refreshing smoothie and a pastizzi for our dinner. We didn’t need much after the fabulous lunch we had. We then found our way to St. Paul’s Shipwreck Church. We learned that you needed either an invitation or a reservation. We had neither, but there were a couple of chairs at the back of the church for people like us. We were told that maybe seats would become available if some people didn’t show up for there reserved seats, and that’s what happened. We were able to move up several rows to better see the performers.
Before the concert, we had an opportunity to take in the awesome art around the church.
The first piece was a Bach violin concerto played by Lorenzo Meraviglia on a 1730 Stradivarius violin. The violin had a very unique tone, I thought, and I really liked the sound. It was lush but somewhat metallic, but very pleasing. The second piece was Franz Schubert’s Mass in G Major. I thought the chorus did a nice job and hearing this wonderful piece in such an incredible setting was moving. Some of the movements are quite rousing! Then came Mozart’s Sancta Maria, a lovely rather short piece that’s full of energy. The guy playing the Strad got to do an encore, and there was also another encore by the string ensemble and chorus. I’m really glad we went. I don’t think we’ve ever done anything like this in any visit to Malta, so it will be a memorable evening.
Walking back to the bus terminus, we got to see Valletta at night. Many of those steep side streets are alive with activity. I am amazed by the restaurants and bars having seating out on the steep streets. The tables are propped up on the downhill side by wooden boxes so that things don’t slide off the table. There is great nightlife in Valletta, for sure.
Just at the entrance to Valletta is this lovely building.
After a crowded bus ride back to the flat, we arrived tired, but happy. It’s been a very nice day.