Good Day to You,

Coming to Malta was one of the best travel ideas I've had in a long time. I am thoroughly enjoying Valletta and am even getting used to All Those Stairs. For one thing the city is compact as it is confined to its fortress-like peninsula and is surrounded on three sides by water. But there is a lot of up and down although you'll have a lot of fun things to look at if you ever come.

I booked my ticket for the National Museum of Archeology on line and got a discount for being old. Now Malta has been inhabited since the Neolithic Period, and a lot of the settlements have been preserved, so we're talking about a LOT of archeology. I'm hoping to visit a site or two. I got to the museum pretty early so mostly had the exhibits to myself. Clear explanations of the artifacts are given in Maltese and English. I got the impression that since independence in 1964, the Maltese have made a conscious effort to reclaim their culture heritage, including emphasizing their language. And indeed they have a lot to be proud of.

For example, the statuette at the head of this post is the Sleeping Lady from the Hypogeum outside of Valletta. The statue became famous for the naturalism of the pose and the details of the carving. As she was found in a tomb, she may be an offering to accompany the deceased.  She has captured the hearts and imagination of the Maltese, who regard her as a cultural emblem of their islands.

Note the spiral motifs. We don't understand their significance but spirals carved into stone can be found from Ireland into Central Asia.

I don't think this museum is for everyone. If pottery shards and carved stone bore you, go have a spritz in one of the many outdoor cafes instead,  I happen to like following society from the Neolithic through the Bronze Age and learning about how the Phoenicians recognized the strategic importance of the islands and ran the place as a major trading post.

Much later on my folks, the Normans stuck their oars in. They'd taken over Sicily, and that island is not far away. Day trips by ferry to Catania are on offer. I'm not taking one, however, but this fact is relevant to my next stop.

La Casa Rocca Piccola is a urban palazzo still owned and occupied by the de Piro Family who obtained it from the Knight of St. John who built it. I booked on line and requested an audio guide rather than the guided tour. This is the sort of place I love to visit.  It's not huge or grande, but more of a palazzo intimo as the rooms were human scale, but packed with hundreds of years worth of the family's collections.

Beautiful furniture is in abundance, so is art of all kinds plus the family's possessions. I shamelessly snooped at their book shelves, delighted to find that we owned some of the same books.  The audio guide was narrated by one of the family and was interesting and informative. One interesting fact that kept coming up was the connection among aristocrats between Malta and Sicily--most families owning land on both islands and a lot of intermarriage between the two islands as well.

I was tired by then, but I still had to make yet another trip to the grocery store. My apero today features some Maltese olives, almonds I brought from home (although I was bemused by the display of California almonds at the store), and some cheese and red wine. This was all most tasty and satifying.  I'll have tuna for dinner, and I got a bottle of Maltese rose, so we'll see how that goes. I follow the Mediterranean Diet at home, so it's a genuine pleasure to follow it while--actually in the Mediterranean.

Bye for now