Malta

Finally we got to Malta, l have been wanting to get there for sometime, as they have two Caravaggio's, 365 churches, the oldest free standing manmade structures in the world ( older than the pyramids of Giza) the beach from Blue Lagoon. What l did not realise that they had was lots of traffic, cheap, but slow bus's, cheap and not always great food, were part of the commonwealth, and so drive on the left side, and full of English people.
A family (Pesce's) who went to the International school moved there a year ago, to escape the 70% tax they paid in Italy to the 5% they pay in Malta. The boys go to a very good school, which is larger than the one in Bologna, and they seem to have a great life, as there are lots of good beaches there, and their English has improved. The Maltese, and l must check if Maltese's came from there, as they were selling them like crazy at the airport. But as l was about the say, the Maltese people speak a dialect partly Italian, Arabic, Spanish and English, swinging from words to words in each language, their English is not always clear, and l would have to say their customer service can be rather average, but it is the most populated place on earth. On the looks, there ain't much to sing about, 5% are absolute stunners, and the rest have been hit with the ugly stick, sorry for being so politically incorrect, but you need to know, the men seemed to me to be all ugly. And sprinkled in the population are expats from England, Sweden, Italy , etc. The English live in Malta for the winters, as it is cheaper to do that than pay the electricity bills for heating in England. Every meal is served with chips, and beer is the drink to have, the main dish is rabbit and you don't need to dress up, like in Italy, which might add to the ugliness.
Now the main town is Valetta, where you can see the Caravaggio's in the main cathedral, which is a showcase in itself, you can spend more than 2 hours there, as we did. The town is an old walled fortification, and is full of history. They have done a good job bringing the standard back. And this is where you get the bus's that travel around the island from, it's only 1.50 euro for a ticket for the day, but they are slow because of the traffic, and the way you buy your tickets on the bus, but no one seems to mind. Some people travelled with prams, don't! The other way to travel is from Siema which is about 5 km out of Valetta, about 20 minutes on the bus where you catch ferries to Sicily, Gozo, the other island and tours around the island.
Mdina is the original capital, and is a beautiful sandstone town, very quite, and peaceful, worth going to and having lunch, with views over the island. Saint Julians, is a very popular place with tourists, about 40 minutes from Valetta, and has some good restaurants and a gelateria, from Bologna. But  a bit crowded l felt, we stayed in the middle of Sliema and St Julians, Ballutta Bay and found it perfect there, a great bar restaurant called U Bistro.
One day we caught the bus to the top of the island where we caught a ferry (40 min) across to Gozo Island where there is another church or two, and the main town of Victoria. On Gozo are two main temple sites, Ggantija and Xagmra. These are incredible as are Tarxium on the main island along with Hypogeum which unfortunately we could not see because they only allow 80 people a day, so make sure you book. This temple is underground and is meant to be quite exceptional, the others have a circular shape to them, circles joining each other, with marks in the stone of design and where doors would hang from. Around them lie on the ground small round boulders which they believe they used to move the large slabs that stand about in the circles as walls, they believe they had roofs of stone or wood, and would have been quite cool in the heat, as they had earth around them. The archaeological museum in Valetta has some of the original design stones, of circular swirls, and these roundish fat women, similar to Henry Moore sculptures, in fact l feel he may have seen these.
Gozo has some great beaches one being the Blue Lagoon, that sits off it on a small island. But the place to go is the beaches towards or at the top of Malta, Ghadira Bay (Baia Beach Club), Ramla Bay, Xemxija Bay, Paradise Bay.
When l go back, l would fly into Malta airport, get a hire car, and drive north to the top, and stay at one of the hotels there and do day trips to these beach's, and do the occasional day trip to Valetta or the temples, by bus mostly. And a trip across to Gozo, where you can take the car on the ferry if you want.
So a place that most people would not think of going to, or know where it is, it lies below Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea. It's a great holiday place, just accept the english food, the slow bus's, the occasional bad service, and ugly faces, and you'll have a great time, and remember it's cheap.

its never easy travelling on the bus's

Boys sort of fishing , top of Malta

Church in Valetta were the Caravaggios are

The travellers in Malta

Being a tourist in the oldest man made structure