Sicily then to Malta
Wondering if anyone that has taken this trip can shed some light on traveling onto Malta once this tour is finished.
We’ve never been to Sicily or Malta and it just seems logical, geographically speaking. We’re booked for 6/2021
and keeping fingers crossed and very hopeful it will happen. Traveling from the East Coast USA. TIA
Suzanne
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I went to Malta in 1994, spent a week or more, can’t remember exactly. I remember my dad telling me we would not like it because it is completely built up, which it is, no green, but we loved it. Saw all the sites and went to Gozo too. If I remember correctly, there is a famous bell there that was cast in the town we lived in in England at the time. It’s a great place to learn to dive and snorkel. That’s all I can tell you.
We visited Malta as part of Tauck's Rome, Amalfi Coast, Sicily and Malta small ship journey. Malta was a pleasant surprise. It has quite a history - its location gave it strategic importance for trading and also in times of war. Tauck took us to to Valletta and Mdina. In Valletta we toured St. John's Co-Cathedral. It is a beautiful cathedral meant to rival those in Rome (see first picture below). We also went by bus to Mdina which was Malta's former capital. We entered through one of the three gates to the city - fortification walls are still visible (second picture). It has some nice squares, churches and quaint shops. We stayed in Malta an extra day and did a day tour in Gozo which we traveled to via ferry. We visited the Ggantija Temples - they were primitive but there were beautiful artifacts in the Interpretative Center. We also went the Citadel and stopped at an overlook which gave us great views of the salt flats (last picture). If you enjoy history, Malta would probably be a nice addition to your trip.
I happened to be watching Sunday’s edition of 60 minutes last night and there was a feature on Malta with some great video including lots of Aerial panorama shots you might enjoy if you can find the program on line or stream it.
I’ll be sure to check out the 60 Minutes video. Thanks for all the info and beautiful photos. Would it be advisable to fly or take a ferry from Sicily to Malta. Also, can anyone comment on the Sicily trip. Our original trip to Italy was canceled and we’ve just opted for this one.
Our trip has some overlap with the one you are planning to take. We were in Siracusa and visited the Archeological Park that is on your itinerary. It is very interesting and we especially enjoyed the Teatro Greco. Your itinerary mentions that if scheduling permits, you will be able to see a Caravaggio painting. As an FYI, if you decide to go to Malta, two of his paintings are in the Oratory at St. John's Co-Cathedral in Valletta. Our tour took us to Palermo and we saw the opera house - it is beautiful and has an interesting ventilation system. We also saw the Cathedral of Monreale - it is very plain from the outside but once inside, you will see beautiful mosaics and marble. The other city our tour had in common with yours is Taormina. This was one of our favorite cities in Sicily - we had some free time here and enjoyed just walking the streets and exploring the shops. Our guide took us to Taormina's Teatro Greco and like your itinerary says, it offers just incredible views. I will include two pictures - our trip was a small ship cruise, so one includes our ship. The theatre is still in use today. Our trip had us choose between the Teatro Greco and a Mt Etna adventure (think the one offered was a little different than yours). While we didn't take the Mt. Etna experience, those that did really enjoyed it. It's nice you will have the option to do both. Regarding Malta, we travelled from Sicily to Malta by our ship and it was overnight so I really can't comment on whether you would want to take a ferry or fly. It will probably depend on time and cost.
Thanks so much for the info and beautiful photos. Here’s hoping that we’re all able to travel in 2021.
We were forced to cancel our trips there this year. We scheduled Sicily back to back with the Amalfi, which gave us a 4 day window in the middle for Maltas, which we planned on our own. The flights are easy -- ferry is way way too long,. DO hope this will happen for us in the future. And you, too
That last picture with the sail boat is where we should be right now. That is Le Ponant.
Italy my favorite country and thinking about our cancelled 2020 trip. On Wednesday, the Italian government extended the country’s state of emergency until January 31, 2021 and issued a new emergency decree that imposes wearing face masks outside if you are near people you do not live with. It requires mass in bars and pubs even while sitting down unless actually eating or drinking. How much fun can that be? Not! https://www.italymagazine.com/featured-story/italy-extends-state-emergency-and-imposes-face-masks-outside?ct=t(EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_10_9_2020)
A beautiful typo mass in bars and pubs!
Lol. "mass in bars and pubs" at this point seems kind of normal. But then I'm doing church by zoom in my living room.
Saw a piece last night that said 85% of the people who got covid in the last two weeks were wearing masks “all or most” of the time. How do they know that?
Going to Yosemite. Virtually no covid. One covid person in the hospital in all of Toulumne County.
Washington Examiner had a piece on it based on a tweet from Rep Andy Biggs Arizona. The article includes his tweet which has one page of a CDC Weekly Morbidity & Mortality report. The stats for mask wearing says "Reported use of cloth mask .... 14 days before illness onset" . I tried but couldn't find the actual rpt on CDC website but there appears to more wrt what contact they had with others, shopping, restaurant dining, etc.
Were the respondents truthful?? Hard to know. Fibbing to make yourself look better is pretty common.
Even medical workers with full ppe are getting this (and dying) so how much viral load/exposure is going to matter.