Contents

Day 1

The Last Leg to Malta

Arriving in Malta

Day 2

The Plan to Valletta

Valletta - How to Get One

Valletta - What to Do With It

Valletta - The Manoel Theater

Valleta - The State Rooms

Valletta - The End of the Peninsula

Valletta - St. Paul's Shipwreck Church

Valletta - The Fading Hours

A Few Notes On Busses

Back to the Hotel

Day 3

Mdina - St. Paul's Cathedral and Museum

Rabat - St. Paul's Catacombs

A Few More Notes on Busses

Day 4

Altering the Plan

Valletta - St. John's Co-Cathedral

Finishing Valletta

Relaxation Spoiled Only by a Map

Day 5

A Few Notes on Pants

Introduction to Gozo

Gozo - Ggantija Temples

What Not to Do in Gozo

Gozo Done Wrong

Gozo - Il Kastell

The Parting Hours

Day 6

Of London and Buckeyes

Day 7

The Worst Breakfast Ever

The Long Flight Home

Malta - Day Two

The Manoel Theater

Valletta itself, being very small, is an eminently walkable city if you don't mind hills. The streets rolled up and down along steep swells of earth that ran across the peninsula, affording long views of the streets as they climbed up the other side of a trough. Chris noted that her continual need to account for people with disabilities in site planning would be entirely useless in a city like this, since even the sidewalks became stairs in some areas. Valletta is a city of very narrow streets, even narrower sidewalks, and a great many stone buildings that are about as revealing as the walls that surround the city. Houses are built with solid wooden doors that then hide a set of windowed doors that lead into an interior that we never saw in these homes. Windows were set high above the street, so that even an accidental glance into a living room or dining room would have been an impossibility. I'm sure this was quite a relief to the citizens of this land, as having tourists stare at you while you are eating dinner doesn't sound all that enjoyable. This is an island that likes its privacy. After some time on the Stairmaster workout, and Chris's first chance to fall in love with a Maltese cat, we finally came across something that could be called a sight: the Manoel Theater. Intrigued by this location, Chris and I bought tickets for the next scheduled tour, walked around for a bit, then returned for our taste of a Maltese theater.
The Manoel Theater - No Longer Just an Intro
The Manoel is a smallish theater with a central seating area and small, loge-like boxes lining the walls. There were some interesting details, such as the mirrors in the boxes that were used by the patrons to see people who were there to be seen. And there were the paintings of Italy on the faces of the boxes, and they were all very nice. In fact, I'm sure that they would even look very nice if they were painted on saw blades that would then be hung in kitchens for reasons I've never understood. We also learned that it is the third-oldest theater in the world that is still in use and it has been hosting performances continuously since 1731, thanks to German bombs missing the theater entirely during World War II. And, after seeing the theater and learning the locations of the oldest theaters in various countries, we went backstage to see old sound effects equipment and old costumes and some history of the theater. Overall, a nice little tour of a venerable old stage. However, as our tour guide pointed out, it really would have been better if it was fully lit up and ready for a performance.	The back of the Manoel Theater.
Admittedly, the tour was not so much a tour of the theater as it was a visit to a very nice theater where we toured the history of theater in general. However, once we were freed to poke around, we found a fun little area to explore. It was not huge, but it was goodly-sized and it had a great many details to take in.
Originally built by the Knights Hospitaller during their rule, it was meant to be a theater for the improvement of the people. This quickly fell by the wayside when a lot of knights felt it was important to be seen by important people at these public functions and, as a result, the knights took all the seats in the theater except the very last row of floor seats. Thus, we are provided with yet another historical example of an nice idea that was ruined by idiots who probably convinced themselves that they were helping.
The bonus of having these particular idiots attempting to be associated with this particular theater was that they were rather well-to-do knights, despite the fact they were technically monks and, therefore, technically poor. But they managed to have quite a lot of cash flowing through their hands and they threw some at their theater. This allowed the theater to have continual improvements and upgrades that filled out the interior until it was dressed to the nines and ready for its night on the town. Presumably at the theater. Which it attended regularly.
Looking toward the stage heaven. If the picture were not so abysmally blurry, I'd point out the different shades of blue on the ceiling.	The only crisp picture I have from the Manoel Theater. Note the mirrors on the front of the boxes that allow attendees to spy out the crowd.
Following our tour, we stopped for some lunch at the café in the building's atrium. The atrium itself was a pleasant little spot that sat beneath a balcony overlooking the café from the second floor. It was surprisingly spacious for a close-packed city like Valletta and it proved to be a welcome opportunity for my wife and I to relax and enjoy each other's company.