Day 8 - Malta

We began our journey in Rome. Our purpose in choosing our whole itinerary was to visit places that the apostle Paul had been. However, we are traveling in the opposite direction that he travelled. Paul had been falsely accused of heresy, sacrilege, and treason. He had appeared before the Jewish Sanhedrin, two Roman governors, and King Agrippa, in addition to other Roman officials, and still no charges against him were proven to be true. Because he was a Roman citizen, Paul then appealed to Caesar - so to Rome he would go, where his case would be tried before the Emperor of Rome.  So Paul started his journey in Jerusalem as a prisoner, but his journey ended in Rome, where ours began.

Today, we set foot on the island of Malta where he was unexpectedly shipwrecked while on route to Rome.  Malta is small island located 52 miles south of Sicily.  We arrived at Valletta, the capital and main port, at 1 PM on a beautiful sunny day.  Sailing into the port of Valletta was like sailing into a different world.  It is like stepping back into time, with its white limestone walls and fortresses guarding the harbor and the entrance to the city.  The entire city – fortress, walls, shops, houses, and churches (all made of limestone) – stood out brilliantly against the deep blue sky with the beautiful blue-green Mediterranean in the foreground. 

These are all views of the harbor when we arrived.

After having lunch onboard, we left the ship to tour the island. Before entering the old part of the city, we boarded a bus to head for the ancient walled city of Mdina.  As we travelled through the more modern areas, we were surprised by the size of the large city and the streets filled with cars, buses, trucks, and people, going at all rates of speed. We passed miles of an ancient brick aqueduct system, which brought water into the city from the higher elevations on the island.  The island is very arid, so water was a precious commodity in the old city.

This is a typical street in Vallatta. Some were in disrepair and some were remodeled.

The ancient walled city of Mdina was inhabited as early as 1,000 BC and became the capital and cultural center of Malta.  In 1530, the island was ceded to, and came under the control of, the Knights of St. John, who eventually moved the capital closer to the sea, in Valletta.  The city declined as it became less important and fewer people remained in the town.  In disrepair, it was destroyed by an earthquake in the 1600’s.  Then, after Napoleon seized control in 1798, the city began to repopulate and was eventually restored. Its formidable walls and deep moat system enclose a town with very narrow streets interspersed with homes, shops, and churches.  People still inhabit the town today.

St, Paul's Cathedral

Jonni, our Maltese driver, and Sheila

We took a lovely carriage ride (which I very much enjoyed) through the extremely narrow cobblestone streets, often causing pedestrians to scurry out of the way of the carriage.  Jonni, the carriage driver, had a loud bell that he would ring to scatter the people that were in his way.  Sheila, the horse, calmly walked on the flats, but would break into a trot going uphill.  We stopped at the top of the town to look out over the island – a beautiful view.   

Paul’s grotto is located in Rabat, a small village adjacent to Mdina. When travelling as prisoner, Paul’s ship, after encountering the “perfect storm”, broke apart and all 276 passengers had to swim ashore. Tradition has it that they all came ashore at St. Paul’s Bay, but some recent archaeologists now believe that it was actually at St. Thomas Bay, on the SE coast of the island of Malta, in 59 or 60 AD. It is believed that Paul wintered in this cave, or grotto, until they left the island 3 months later, the following spring.  According to Scriptures, Luke and Aristarchus would have been with him.  Acts 27 records, in vivid detail, the storm and shipwreck.  Acts 28:1-12 records his stay on the island of Malta.  All passengers swam to shore and were greeted by very friendly islanders with a fire to warm them, for which they were very grateful after having been lost at sea for 14 days. Paul was bitten by a poisonous snake and miraculously survived.  At first the islanders thought he was a murderer deserving justice. Then, when he survived, they thought he was a god. But Paul was merely a man with a passionate mission to proclaim the powerful message of the risen Christ. Paul later healed the father of Publius, the governor of the island. Tradition states that Publius later began the first church in Malta.

We then had had a very fast and skilled young Maltese taxi driver on our return trip to the old city of Valletta. It was the fastest we have ever driven in a downtown area, we felt like we were in the Grand Prix.  The trip that took ½ hour to travel on the bus to Mdina only took 10 minutes to get back! The driver was a very nice young man who spoke 3 languages.

The city was named after its hero, Jean de la Valletta, who, with an army of only 10,000 men, successfully defended the city against the Ottoman (Turks) fleet and army of 30,000 soldiers.  After 3 months of vicious, bloody battle, the Turks withdrew in 1565.  After this battle, the inhabitants began fortifying the city with high, thick walls and cannon that guarded the harbor. We walked and shopped around this ancient city of Valletta. 

House in Valletta

We found our first Dollar Store in Valletta!

St. Paul's Church of the Shipwreck

In the city there is a a beautiful look-out over of the harbor called the Upper Barrakka Gardens, built by the Knights of St. John

View from the Gardens

This was our first no- gelati day, but was also the first time that we ate three meals in one day.  We ended our day with a late dinner onboard our ship, on an outdoor patio overlooking the harbor.  Our ship departed Malta at 10:00 PM.  We will change time zones tonight, and will now be 7 hours ahead of East Coast time.

And, once again, it is past midnight.

Le yla-it-tayob (good night in Maltese)