Sicily, the Amalfi Coast and Rome
Mike and Judy Henderson
September 18 - 28, 2018
I'm going to leave the map on each web page so you can see where we are.
9/27/2018 (Thursday) The main order of business today was to get to the airport at Catania, which is about an hour drive up the coast. You can see on the map below that Catania is between Syracusa and Messina.
The bus picked us up at the dock about 10am.
After about an hour we arrived at Catania Airport. It's a fair sized airport, and modern.
Here's an interior view.
Tauck had worked hard to get a charter aircraft to take us to Malta, but we had to wait for a while. We put all our luggage together in the entrance hall of the airport.
We had lunch at a sandwich shop in the airport, and about 2pm we were able to check in and clear security. Here's the other side of security, as we were waiting for our plane.
About 5pm our flight was called and we crowded into the bus to the aircraft.
The plane was a 737-500 business jet.
It was nice - two seats per side and nice, large, comfortable seats - first class.
After about an hour flight, we landed in Valletta, Malta, a bit before 6pm.
Busses were waiting to take us to the hotel, the Phoenicia - a lovely hotel. I took this picture the next morning.
At 7pm, we met in the lobby for dinner. We went to the Parisio Palace. We gathered in the courtyard for cocktails.
Here are Gracia, Wally and Nancy.
Our Tour Guides, Erica and Tato.
We toured part of the palace and then went to dinner in a very ornate room.
A harpist, who is the designated harpist to the king, entertained us.
Then it was back to the hotel about 10pm and to bed. Several of the people had early flights out of Malta the next morning.
9/28/2018 (Friday) We woke up early and went out at dawn to see some of the city. We were assured that Malta was a very safe place and it was okay for tourists to wander around any time of day or night.
The entrance to the old city was a block away from the hotel, and we headed there. There's a fountain in the plaza.
This panoramic view of the plaza behind the fountain shows the walls of the city and the entrance to the city.
The entrance walk into the city. People were already coming to work.
The city is a mix of modern and ancient buildings. Here's one of the modern buildings. The streets are narrow so I couldn't back up enough to get the whole building. You'll see that in some of the following pictures.
The Church of St. Francis of Assisi on the major street. Couldn't get the whole facade.
The interior of the church. People were stopping to pray before going to work.
This was the library with an interesting sculpture in front of it. There's a lot of public sculpture in the city. I took pictures, but I have to limit how much I put on the blog, just for space.
A square in the city. I don't know which one it is, I just liked the picture.
Interior of the Basilica of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. There are about 365 churches on Malta.
Then we walked down to the port.
And followed the road along the port, outside the walls, back to the hotel.
The driver showed up right on time to take us to the airport. And that was the end of our tour of Rome and Sicily. We're off to Cairo now - You can follow us in Egypt by clicking here.