Malta - We want to love thee, but drones!!
May 14, 2023
Busy day on Malta. Our group had a bus booked for the day to take us to St Paul’s Bay, San Pawl Miliqi, Roman Villa in Mdina, Mdina walled city, catacombs in Medina, and Hagar Qim Neolithic Temples.
At St Paul’s Bay we made another attempt with the drone, got some footage but drone again taken by the wind… this time into a tree on a bluff behind the bay. I’ll spare you all the gory details but after cab rides/hike/climb/tree climb we got it back !
We became experts at the cab system here and I think we met nearly every cab driver in Malta while going to each site to film, a step behind the bus until later afternoon!
The first Roman villa ruins we saw was San Pawl Miliqi. This was a working estate in the 1st century AD with olive presses and cisterns and a later commemorative church built on the site. Earlier in history it held a pagan temple. There are finding at the site back to Maltese Bronze Age. It is very close to St Paul’s Bay, which makes some sense with the accounting from Acts 28:7 that Publius lived in the area. But there is no concrete evidence that it is Publius’s home, just as there is not firm evidence St Paul Bay is actually the bay of Paul’s shipwreck - just a very long tradition of Christian appreciation of these sites. Thanks so much to the wonderful guide Patricia from Heritage Malta - everyone very much enjoyed her tour!
Next we visited a Roman Villa excavation in Rabat. This was obviously a wealthy Roman Villa and many beautiful mosaics have been preserved.
Nearby is the walled city of Mdina. This fortified city was the Maltese capital from antiquity and through the Medieval age. It’s built on the highest point on Malta. It’s nicknamed the silent city, as very few cars are allowed within the walls. There are many lovely streets / churches/ chapels and the cathedral. It’s a major tourist attraction.
While in route to our next site, we stopped at a view point overlooking the famous Blue Grotto - I’ll let the pictures explain that one.
Last stop was the site of some Neolithic temples that date to the 5,000 - 3,200 BC era. There is very little understood about these or the people who built them, and there are many across Malta and the northern island of Gozo.
One last thing, while we were chasing around droning, we came across an example of the famous Malta “cart ruts”. There is no explanation for these. They are found all over Malta. They can’t be dated, no chisel marks, another ancient mystery.
Big thanks to the NET, the bus company and our escort Chis who was so very helpful today!
Dinner at a little basement restaurant across the street from our hotel, and we are exhausted! Tomorrow we hope to get inside the huge St Johns cathedral here in Valletta and explore the city a little before our afternoon flight to Crete. Good night and God Bless! PB and Marge
PS forgot another important highlight today - CLEAN LAUNDRY!! The hotel had laundry service.
Malta Cart Tracks
