Malta
Upon arrival, we grabbed a taxi to Casa Cara, an apartment in Birgu (the capital of Malta in the 16th century) and is located across from Valletta, the current capital of Malta), where we would reside for 3 nights. This was October 3, the date of our 48th wedding anniversary. Prior to the trip start date, we had dined with friends from Seattle, Mary & Joseph, who would be on Malta around the same time we would be on Sicily. We pegged October 3 as the date to meet them at Vittoriosa Square where we each had residences in close proximity. Their detective work for the celebratory dinner resulted in reservations at Terrone. It was located on the waterfront of Grand Harbour, and near Fort St. Angelo. Maggie’s and my selections included Split & Wood Roasted Langoustine, Seaweed Butter & Lemon as starters, then Risotto di Bosco, Wild Foraged Mushrooms, Thyme & Sage, Butter & Grana as the primi, followed by Fillet of Red Snapper, Wood-roasted over Potatoes & Leeks with foraged Girolles, Thyme & Butter…topped off with our dolci, consisting of Apricot & Almond Tart, Crème Fraiche! Of course, there was wine in attendance as well…a perfect evening in celebration of 48 years of marriage!
The following day we all met up again for breakfast at Caffe’ du Brazil before boarding a water taxi to Valetta, where we would pay a nominal fee to witness one of two daily firings of the cannons at the top of the Saluting Battery, rising up 190 feet in the Barrakka Lift, overlooking Fort St. Angelo and the Grand Harbour. Since we were too late for the morning cannon firings, we strolled the streets of Valletta, popping into shoppes, making minor purchases for friends (and ourselves, as well), which included a key chain, that would reflect where we were for my half-sister back in Seattle, who had commanded that I do this. We stumbled on to St John’s Co-Cathedral, dedicated to John the Baptist, which was constructed between 1573 and 1578, after the Great Siege of 1565, an example of “high Baroque architecture”, taking out our iPhones to capture its interior magnificence. You may ask what a “Co-Cathedral” is…had to look it up…”a cathedral church which shares the function of being a bishop’s seat, or cathedra, with another cathedral”. Didn’t stick around long enough to find out which this was! Whilst inside, we were treated to an exhibit of Caravaggio’s paintings (16th century), including a 400-year-old painting of St. Jerome. We finally returned to the Saluting Battery to catch the second round of firings for the day, then another water taxi back to Birgu, where we freshened up for our 7:45 PM planned dinner at the Harbor Club, another water taxi away. The highlight here was a bossy manager who attempted to override the wait staff’s services to us, which was rejected since we were on the waitstaff team!!!
Our last full day on Malta, October 5, commenced with a 10:30 AM meet up with Captain Mahmoud, who would steer us on a 2-hour Blue Lagoon/Crystal Lagoon Comino tour, where we basked in the sun, snorkeled and swam, Stan learning from Mary how to float (since he has no buoyancy) using a “noodle”! That evening saw us walking to a local hotel for pre-dinner beverages in Birgu, then crossing a foot bridge over the inlet into the city of Senglea where we dined on seafood at Novita for a quiet and serene ending to our time there.
Naples
The next day, October 6, we flew to Naples (140 miles south of Rome), arriving there late afternoon, where we would spend our last 3 nights before flying home on October 9. The ride from the airport to our stay at B&B Musica E Mare was the scariest ground transportation we can remember in all our travels! Our driver was yelling, swerving, tailgating, baring his fists and every other potentially disastrous move one could imagine. We surprised him with a large tip for treating us to the craziest taxi ride ever! He appeared shocked, which pleased us to no end. We were dropped off in front of a 6-story structure housing our new residence for 3 nights taking a small and ancient elevator to our unit, at the pinnacle of this edifice, lending us a commanding view of the Gulf of Naples, part of the Tyrrhenian Sea, and Vesuvius, as well as a view of the island of Capri! The B&B owners, Alessandro and his partner, Rosanna had thought of everything…cappuccino, ample water and many food items to snack on, creating the perfect situation for us. Later in the day, we decided to take the stairs down to exit the building, counting them one-by-one. If my memory serves me it came out to be 165 steps in all. Now we had our daily workout mapped out! We spent the balance of the day meandering around our neighborhood, discovering the enormous Galleria Umberto I, a 5-story structure from 1890, serving as an umbrella over a myriad of retail shops and restaurants. Close to our B&B was Via Toledo, a ¾ mile long and densely populated ancient (dating back to 1536) avenue sporting an amazing array of shopping locations, now packed with hundreds of people on the sidewalks and in the street. We meandered for an hour before coming across a funky pizza place where we had an amazing Neapolitan margarita pizza…the best of our lives!
In lieu of visiting the town of Pompeii, we spent 2 hours on our second day in Naples at their National Archaeological Museum. We were overwhelmed by the statues of unclothed Romans in various poses, the many artifacts of daily life in that era being displayed and petrified bodies of victims of the 79 A.D. eruption of Pompeii’s Mount Vesuvius. Located in the museum was a special location named The Secret Cabinet, which had on display erotic artifacts which were originally only available to scholars who intended to “conduct further study”. Maggie suggested that I not share the pictures she had taken of these for this dispatch! The grounds of the museum also had art, e.g., a lion and camel, created from sticks and other natural materials, which we enjoyed while relaxing in the courtyard before proceeding on our way around Naples, through some urine soaked alleys and lots of graffiti, until we ended up on the waterfront across from our B&B, thinking we might buy tickets to take a boat trip to Capri. Here we stumbled on the Castle Nuovo-Maschio Angioino, which was built in the second half of the 13th century when the capital of the kingdom of Sicily was moved from Palermo to Naples. Today it houses the headquarters of the Neapolitan Society of Homeland History. Our dinner that night was taken at Trattoria Del Golfo, just around the corner from our domicile, dining on Scialatielli Ai Frutti Di Mare and other delicious concoctions, along with red wine, of course!
Our last full day in Naples would find us having a light breakfast at one of the venues housed under the roof of Galleria Umberto I, followed by a 1-hour tour into the underbelly of Naples, the Napoli Sotterranea. We had to wait a good hour before we could purchase tickets, so a glass of wine and a pizza at a bistro across the cobble-stoned street was perfect, to keep an eye on things, to ensure we got in with the next batch of visitors. It turned out to be one of the best tours we’ve ever had, experiencing its ancient caverns 120 feet below street level, with narrow passageways requiring us to move single file, sometimes having to face the wall and sidestep, using the flashlights in our iPhones to see what was next to avoid any injury. We would end up in chambers where our group of 30 would listen to our guide describe the history of these caverns. They had been formed by the Romans excavating for the creation of building materials. Coming around one bend, a large pool of water presented itself and our guide gathered us together to describe the importance of that aspect for the benefit of the 5,000 people housed here during World War II’s bombings on Naples, needing to drink and bathe, albeit, without much privacy! After months down under, many of them returned to the streets above to avoid the confinement, the lack of privacy, open toileting/shower areas, as well as the stench! They were willing to take their chances topside.
Following our tour, we meandered our way back toward our residence, as we had eliminated a boat ride to Capri, which allowed us to experience the dingiest/dirtiest alleys we could possibly find, as pictured in some of the photos! We spent our last night, Sunday, strolling up Via Toledo, with hordes of other folks. We have two memories of that night: (1) a small dog running pell-mell downhill toward a busy road, with its owner shouting, trying to catch his best friend; (2) a hole-in-the-wall “restaurant” on a small, almost alleyway, thinking that we had stumbled onto something really cool! Well, Maggie and I and the table next to us (locals) were severely disappointed, and we kept looking at each other with our eyebrows raised, our shoulders shrugged, with facial expressions that “said it all”!
This is the end of our tale in London, Sicily, Malta & Naples. We flew out of Naples on October 9, 2023, via Heathrow, Portland & back to Seattle. Thank you for reading this dispatch. We hope it inspires you to explore our planet! Cheers, Stan & Maggie