MALTA 

Malta lies south Sicily, north of Libya and east of Tunisia and the African coast. It consists of five islands in all: Malta (the largest). Gozo, Comino and uninhabited Cominotto and Filfla.

The locals are very friendly and they speak English. Driving is not a problem as they drive on the left-hand side of the road, and the roads are not too daunting, but be warned the locals do not drive slow. They do however respect tourists and try to give them a wide berth. Malta provides something for everyone, from relaxation to cultural heritage, there is a lot of history to Malta.

We visited Malta May4th ’99. The weather was perfect for us, we could sunbathe during the day and the evenings were still quite warm for an evening stroll. We stayed at the Hotel Fortina in Sliema.

The hotel has a perfect location. It is situated on the waterfront in a quiet yet central part of Sliema. It has great views of the City’s bastions and overlooks the Grand Harbour. It was wonderful waking up every morning to the view of Valetta across the bay.

Sliema itself has a lovely promenade, which stretches for quite a distance, and you will find most people taking a stroll in the early part of the evening as the sun goes down.

We found Malta to be a very relaxing place to visit, and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay.

Here are some of our holiday snaps:

GOZO

Gozo’s main source of income apart from tourism is agricultural and handicraft. There are plenty of good buys in lace and hand knitted garments to be bought if you so wished. The speciality for us was the goat’s cheese rolled in peppercorns known as Gbejna and it was delicious.

Everyone visiting Gozo has to visit The Citadel. It is well worth taking the steps up to the bastions to see the panoramic views of the island. The inner sections of the bastions, formerly used for storing weapons and munitions, have now been converted into a shopping arcade which leads everyone to the craft centre. Inside the craft centre you will find a collection of glassware, pottery and wrought-iron goods. On the first floor you will see a loom and a variety of lacemaking equipment.

Inside the Cathedral is a trompe l’oeil by Antonio Manuele di Messina purporting to be the dome. It was made in 1739 in lieu of a great dome to be built one day. Because it looked so impressive, the real dome was never built. When you look inside you will see the illusion of the dome but as you look outside you will see that what you saw was impossible as the cathedral has a flat roof. Like I said very impressive.

We found that you could quite easily spend a day touring Gozo, and the ferry crossing over from Malta was not too expensive either. We paid �17 for a car and four passengers to go to Gozo. A very good excursion to do yourself.

COMINO

Comino is famous for its Wild Thyme, which makes the local honey so aromatic. The name Comino comes from the herb cumin, which grew in abundance here in the Middle Ages. The herb was an important export article until cotton cultivation was introduced after the American War of Independence (1775-83)

We visited the Blue Lagoon and the water is just as the name says. It is very clear and you can see different colour corals. The small boats will take you in and out of the tiny inlets and point out the places of interests for the amateur photographers to take their snap shots.

Even though Comino is only a tiny island, there is a small beach and you can take small walks across the top of the island and look down on to the Blue Lagoon. We travelled on The Captain Morgan Boat over there and we came back by speedboat, this is a much quicker and nicer way to travel.

Home / Main Page / Holidays / Rick's Page / Lorraine's Page / Recipes / Links