Adventures in Europe: Valletta, Malta

Yesterday afternoon, after driving back to Bologna from San Marino, Diana and I flew Ryanair to Malta.  We had a nice view of the island as we came into land.

From the airport we took the public bus into Valletta, and were quite impressed as we walked through the city gates.

We checked in at our lovely little guesthouse, the Casa Asti, where our host was a wonderful little old lady.

Once settled, we headed out into the Maltese night for dinner.

We sat on a patio and enjoyed a unique and delicious pizza, with local sausage and potatoes on it.

As I looked outside this morning I had this wonderful view of our street, including the colourful balconies Valletta is known for.

We began our day by walking through the Upper Barrakka Gardens . . .

. . . to the Barrakka lift, a massive outdoor elevator that brought us to the foot of the cliff in a few seconds.

A little walk along the water brought us to the ferry which would take us across the Grand Harbour.

Our only motivation to cross the harbour was to be able to enjoy the view, and it was indeed lovely to sit out in the open air of what was already a very warm morning.

The ferry only takes a few minutes to cross the harbour, and on the other side we just kept our seats and waited for the return trip.

Back in Valletta, we sat at a cafe in the Upper Barrakka Gardens and drank coffees, then spent the rest of the morning and into the afternoon exploring the peninsula.  Of course, exploring included a stop for lunch at the wonderful Is-Suq Tal-Belt, an old building renovated into a beautiful food markert and food court (where I ate a plate of rabbit, apparently a Maltese favourite); and two more patio stops for drinks.

We only had 24 hours total in Malta, but we really enjoyed Valletta, and the idyllic Mediterranean weather meant we had a perfect day for exploring and enjoying the old city.

With our day in the Maltese capital done, we are now flying onward to Tunis, Tunisia.

Adventures in Europe: San Marino

From Bologna, Diana and I rented a car (an Audi A5) yesterday and drove south to San Marino.  It was a drive of about 140 kilometres, mostly on Italy's A14 freeway.

We could see San Marino's Mount Titano from quite a ways away, and as we got closer we could see the famous three towers (featured on San Marino's flag/coat of arms) lining the cliffs.

We drove up Mount Titano most of the way, and then parked just outside of the old city at a parkade.  This was the view inland as we walked up out of the parking lot.

The historic centre of San Marino is a UNESCO world heritage site, and incredibly well-preserved and maintained.  It felt surreal to walk its streets, as we wound upwards towards our hotel.  It was very quiet, with only a handful of tourists here or there.

We were staying at the Hotel Rosa, and once checked in, this was the view from our window.

Our hotel is right beneath Guaita, the largest of the three San Marino towers.

At check in, the hotel staff recommended we move our car, so we actually drove down a little ways to a different parking lot, and then rode the "Funivia" (presumably Italian for funicular--or maybe just "fun way to get around"?) back up to the historic centre.

For dinner we went to San Marino's only Michelin-starred restaurant.  It was even quieter as we walked to dinner--virtually deserted in most places--and the restaurant was quiet too.

This is the restaurant in the day time.

Diana ordered the most expensive bottle of wine, a red from San Marino.  The waiter seemed quite impressed when she ordered it, but, somehow, despite the Michelin-star, the most expensive bottle was only 20 euro!  

We shared several courses, starting with the beef tartar . . .

. . . and followed with a delicious truffle pasta.

We had a salad and a fish entree as well, but I didn't take photographs of those dishes.

After dinner we climbed up above our hotel to look out over San Marino/Italy lit up for the night.

This morning I was up before Diana so headed out for a little walk.  It was raining, so I borrowed an umbrella from the hotel.   Despite the rain (and the fog) I had a nice little walk along the trail that connects the three towers.

This was the second tower:

The fog was so thick at the third tower that I missed it as I went by at first!

I returned to the hotel to meet Diana for a wonderful breakfast.  Thankfully, it stopped raining while we were eating, and at 9:00 we went out to visit the first tower. 

It was fun to clamber around, and we had it to ourselves, but the fog meant there was virtually no view to speak of, whereas I imagine on a clear day it could be quite spectacular--and apparently you can easily see the Adriatic Sea.

The tower's compound includes a small museum . . .

. . . and a little chapel.

After our tower tour, we had another hour or so in San Marino before having to leave, so we walked around some more and did some souvenir shopping.

Shortly after 11:00 we walked to the funicular station to head back down to the car.

Now we are traveling back to Bologna to catch a flight to Malta!