Malta & Messina

It may be a long, long time from May to December, but September is just around the corner, and the days are getting shorter and cooler around here. And just ten days ago we were sweltering in a Roman August.

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So let's now get back to my travel diary.

August 7.

Entering Malta's Grand Harbour on a clear bright morning is an experience not to be fogotten. The city looks like it is hewn from solid rock, and much of it is. The walls and battlements are imposingly medieval and robust.

Valletta, Malta is a very small place, and the passengers from one large cruise ship like ours will be quite enough to fill its narrow streets, like a school of fish in a tiny aquarium. The architecture here is Mediterranean. Green-painted bay windows protrude from the houses, much like the ones in southern Spain or Morocco. In the floor of the great Co-Cathedral of Saint John of Malta lie the ornate and colorful sepulchres of the Knights Hospitaller (a.k.a the Knights of Rhodes, Knights of Malta, Cavaliers of Malta, and the Order of St. John of Jerusalem). Inside the Cathedral are two paintings by Caravaggio, which for themselves are worth braving the crowds in order to view. No pictures or videos allowed. Officious guards bark their admonitions at unwary tourists who do not see the posted Verboten sign.

Malta was once a British possession, and signs of the British presence are everywhere. The Maltese language is impenetrable. Some of their words have a lot of x's in them, and sound quite Arabic. Malta has some nice glass products, paperweights and such. Not quite Venetian, but charming nonetheless.

The weather continues to be glorious.

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August 8.

Messina, Sicily. Ashore at 9.00AM, and found a telcom provider, where I made a call to Rome to be assured that the car will be there when we arrive tomorrow at Civitavecchia.

The dock is right by the city's municipal government building, and a short walk to the downtown and the Duomo, where at the noon hour crowds assemble in the piazza to watch the show in the belltower. There, on the stroke of twelve, a rampant gilded lion holding a banner begins to roar, several times; then a gilded rooster crows from the ledge one level down; below that a procession of gilded saints move past a seated image of the Almighty, each bowing in turn; while in a window a level below a house rises from the waves. I have no idea what the story is behind the show, and plan to research Wikipedia later to find out.

There are three cruise ships in Messina harbor. American voices are most prominent among the tourists buying shoes.

Sicilians are friendly and helpful. Romans less so.