We sailed on a very nice overnight ferry from Tunis to the small island nation of Malta, just south of Sicily. It has many interesting prehistoric sites and tons of large ornate churches, and, having been part of the British Empire for awhile, they drive on the left side of the road. Ray had hoped to see both of its islands, but since we only had two and a half days we decided to concentrate on just a few things.
Valetta
Most tourists in Malta stay in a seaside resort -- they go to the beach to escape the cold English weather. We stayed in Valletta, the capital, which was unusual in that it had a reasonably modern grid of streets inside ancient city walls. More pictures...
Ancient History
We visited three megalithic temples, some of the oldest structures found anywhere in the world, and a cave which has given scientists an idea of the early animal and human life on Malta. More pictures...
Siggiewi, Rabat, Mdina, and Mosta
We stopped in Siggiewi after looking at temples and explored its church as the sun went down. The next day we explored Rabat, with its church and catacombs; the adjacent old city of Mdina, with its cathedral and distinctive architecture; and the enormous dome church of Mosta.
We finished the day at a wonderful "slow food" restaurant which served Maltese food cooked in the traditional way (which, sadly, we didn't photograph). Mmm... ftira. (Maltese "pizza", a thick piece of bread with, say, big chunks of sausage and potatoes and goat cheese with a little tomato sauce). More pictures...
