Malta & Italy (2022)

 

Days 1 & 2 (October 30 & October 31, 2022)

 

LAX è NYC è Rome è Valletta (Malta)

 

First couple of days on our trip to Europe:

 

We woke up at 4:00 am on Sunday Oct 30).  And 3 legs later we arrived to Malta.  United Airlines was able to accommodate us in their Polaris class cabin in the first 2 legs.  It did make a difference to both me and Tova (who has never experienced Business Polaris until today).

As soon as we landed in Rome, we stored our 2 (out of the 4) luggage at the airport. The plan was to pick them up after returning from our Italy’s tour.

 

 

For the last flight we used Air Malta. We made it alright to Valletta, Malta airport but the 2 luggage that were supposed to arrive with this flight were missing. 

 

In that flight I was sitting next to a nun, in the middle seat and next to her was seated a woman, who I got to speak with only when the plane landed in Malta, I talked to the nun for a few minutes, offered her a Kind Candy Bar and then fell asleep for the entire duration of the flight (90 minutes).

 

As we approached the airport, The lady, who was sitting next to the nun introduced herself to me as Charmaine. She gave me a magazine with attractions highlights of Valletta (Malta’s Capital) and asked me to write down few other attractions that were not mentioned in the magazine.

 

I asked Charmaine, jokingly, if she wanted to be our guide for the next 3 days (“since you know so much about Valletta”) and she answered: "No problem.  Let me verify with my husband, who is sitting right behind you".  Sure enough, her husband (His name was fittingly enough, our) Savior, agreed and we exchanged our phone numbers and I gave her the address of our Airbnb in the city.  We said goodbyes and decided to start the tour tomorrow morning at 9:00 am.

 

We took a taxi to our Airbnb, which was in the center of the city right next Republic Street, a historic street with many boutiques and eateries. 

   

We started to explore our surroundings and walked to Republic Street, looking at the attractions around us and also found few stores to purchase what we need. We bought few necessary items (underwear, socks, toilette, T-Shirts and also found a grocery store right next to the property.

 

     

We returned to our apartment, showered and then walked down again to find a small Italian restaurant named Pappanis and had Dinner. The taste, that was a fusion between Africa & Italy, was unbelievable.

Day 3 (November 1, 2022)

 

Malta

We made our breakfast at the apartment and then made our way downstairs to wait for Charmaine & Savior.

 

Our “Tour Guides” showed up few minutes late (They had a hard time locating our address).

 

Our first stop was at a Vista point where we saw the most visited place on the island, which we would visit later: The Blue Grotto.

      

The rocky coastline along this area was very high and the sea was very deep with a dark blue all the way. The view from this area was fantastic with open sea, very high cliff, sand and a picturesque rock formation. From this point we could see Filfla, the little island located 3 miles (5 km) out at sea which is now a protected bird sanctuary.

   

We saw a birds' trainer and his falcon and owl and also took pictures with the Falcon.

By now we learned that Charmaine’s nick name is Cher and Savior’s nickname is Savi and that is how we called them afterwards.

A short drive away was Hagar Xim and Mnajdra Archeological site.

We saw a short 4-D movie about the history of the digging.  The archaeologists, in the 1830's discovered a temple that was built 3,600 years ago.  The digging has lasted for about 150 years.