Get to know Malta’s history and people

My daughter Sheila and I visited Malta with Road Scholar (11 Ave. de Lafayette, Boston, MA 02111; 800/466-7762, www.roadscholar.org), Feb. 17-27, 2008. The program-only rate was $2,684 double. (If you agreed to a roommate but none was available, you still paid the lesser rate.) Sheila paid an additional $600 single supplement.

We stayed at one of the newest hotels, Le Méridien St. Julians Hotel & Spa (39 Main St., Balluta Bay, St. Julians, STJ 15, Malta; visit www.starwoodmalta.com/lemeridienstjulians or, in the US, phone 888/625-5144), located in the Sliema area about 10 miles from Malta’s capital, Valletta, to which there is local bus service.

The hotel had 14 floors and many views, but my room, No. 712, while spacious, looked at the parking area. There were three restaurants. The breakfasts, which were included, were excellent, but many choices often were not available.

February was definitely out of season. The beaches on Malta and Gozo were not in use and the climate was cool. We did have one rainstorm in 10 days.

Everything on Malta is expensive. Cisk is a local beer, but most liquor must be imported and costs accordingly. Wine can be local and of good quality.

So what did we see and do while visiting this 120-square-mile republic located almost in the center of the Mediterranean Sea?

At Hagar Qim we viewed ruins of temples more than 5,000 years old, older than the pyramids, built by people about whom we know nothing. We visited some of Malta’s nearly 400 churches, including St. Paul’s Church in Rabat, built over the limestone cave where Paul took shelter after he was shipwrecked on Malta.

Over the course of the tour, we visited countless bays, grottoes and lagoons, listened to bands that performed during various civic events (there are 100 such groups) and stopped at more than 20 restaurants.

Malta is located in the shipping lanes of the Mediterranean, and we toured the catacombs where during World War II the islanders waited out the almost daily air raids from 1940 to 1942. When descending into the catacombs, if you are over six feet tall you will do a lot of bending and head moving to avoid getting a bump on the noggin.

Malta was part of the British Empire from 1814 until 1979. The Brits’ departure on March 31, 1979, is now celebrated as an annual holiday. Two remnants of the British tenure are the fact the Maltese drive on the left, and the island’s only golf course, the Royal Malta Golf Club, built by the Brits.

I played the course and found the links to be flat, treeless and in sorry condition. Yet when that course is the only show in town, it must serve. Besides its being expensive, I found the fairways rough, the greens shoddy and the crisscross patterns on some fairways dangerous. I also managed a hook shot on one tee, which went sailing over the border fence and down one of the highways.

The wind blows in the afternoon, so golf is better in the morning, as are tennis matches and outdoor activities in general.

Besides Malta, we visited the two other inhabited islands in the archipelago: Gozo, which is one-third the size of Malta, and Comino, even smaller.

Gozo is a 3-mile, 30-minute ferry ride from the northwest corner of Malta. Here too are the ancient temple formations that mystify archaeologists, plus cathedrals, shopping centers featuring local crafts, a grotto accessible only by a short boat ride, and the Citadel, which served as the protective fort for this island when it was besieged by the Turks almost 500 years ago.

On Comino, St. Mary’s tower is a good example of many well-preserved 15th-century towers on the archipelago that were used primarily to warn of attackers by sea.

Back on the main island we visited Valletta. You could easily spend a day wandering around this city. Traffic is controlled, with few vehicles in the metro area itself. The garden area of this city, once you achieve its top, has wonderful views of the grand harbor.

Valletta also has some nearby castles and St. John’s Co-Cathedral (so called because the Bishop of Malta, whose see is at Mdina, may use St. John’s as an alternate see). The cathedral has a wonderful pipe organ.

If you have no knowledge of World War II, Malta may not mean as much to you. I found it an experience to know and then see how the indomitable Maltese people persevered. Cruise ships dock for a 9-hour stay, and the place can be enjoyed just on the “see a beach, enjoy a sunset” level, but its history and people are worth getting to know.

Three books of fiction that discuss in detail how WWII affected Malta are “The Jukebox Queen of Malta” by Nicholas Rinaldi, “The Brass Dolphins” by Joanna Trollope and The Kappillan of Malta” by Nicholas Monsarrat (Cassell, ISBN 978-0304358441). The latter covers the gamut of Maltean history, albeit favoring WWII.

PHILIP H. DE TURK

Pinehurst, NC