20 November 2017 –– Valletta, Malta

We sailed into the port of Valletta at sunrise and were treated to a beautiful sight of the city as the Captain maneuvered the ship through the breakwaters and gave us a 360 degree view of the city as he had to completely turn the ship in order to dock.  Truly a feat, and we wondered if he lays awake at night running the maneuver through his mind over and over. It was a windy and cloudy early morning, but the sun broke through and gave us a beautiful day.

We joined our tour at 9:00am and our tour guide, Ilona, was superb.  She first took us to the old capital of Mdina with its rich Arabic and Spanish influence and we walked through the narrow streets of this 1 square mile, walled and fortified old city.  We spent nearly 2 hours here listening to the history of the old capital, learning of residents that own the houses within, even heard that season 1 of the Game of Thrones was filmed here.   From the height of the walled fortifications we could see the city of Valletta and the sea, and patchwork of fields of various crops, of which only supply 35% of the needs of the 400,000+ residents of the Republic of Malta.

We then went to the outskirts of Valletta to the Valletta Glass factory that is famous for its Maltese Murano glass.  Actually the technique was created here and taken to Murano, where its fame grew.  A pleasant break from our history lesson!

Our next stop was Mosta, where we visited the church and it large unsupported dome that is more than 40 meters in diameter and is the 3^rd largest in the world after St. Peter’s in Rome and the Cathedral in London.  During WW II a bomb errantly was dropped through the dome during a mass with 300 people in attendance but did not explode!  So it’s also called the Miracle Church.

We returned to Valletta and we treated to a guided tour of the main sights of the city, including the Prime Minister’s HQ and the famous St. John Co-Cathedral where the Knights of St. John, 412 of them are entombed in the floor of the cathedral and there are 8 side altars, one to each of their heritages, thus representing the 8 points of the Maltese Cross and their symbol of the Knights of St. John.  What an incredibly beautiful church which interestingly is not a catholic church, but owned 50% by the Knights and 50% by the Government of Malta.

Since we are here overnight we went back to the city and saw their Christmas light display in the main commercial street.  A nice ending to a good day in Malta.