ST. JOHN'S CATHEDRAL - VALLETTA, MALTA

St. John's Cathedral - Valletta, Malta - July 2008

KNOCK, KNOCK WHO IS THERE?

I developed a new found interest during our recent vacation with taking photos of door knobs. Prior to our trip, I read in the travel guide about decorated doors and windows in Tunisia, specially about Tunisians using the color of blue as symbol of the Mediterrenean sea. As I started taking photos of doors, entrance archways, and windows, I also noticed the door knobs. Included in this entry are a few interesting door knobs from Tunisia, Malta and Rome. We were walking along an alleyway, near Spanish Steps, going in and out of various shops when I saw the doors (photo above) of a private home, tucked between a clock and a souvenir shops. I called out to my husband to tell him about the handle in the shape of a hand. In my excitement, I picked up and then let go of the handle to show CP how it worked. Luckily no one came to the doors as I was sure it was not the first time strangers accidentally knocking without the intention of knocking! Notice the open slot for mail, what happened if the postal person was short and could not slide the mail in the slot? When I was about 10 years old living in Viet Nam, I almost caused my neighbor a heart attack when I knocked on her door, yelling, "Please open the door". That evening my mother told me to take an empty tray that was cleaned, back to the neighbor and to thank her for giving us some bakeries the previous week. I knocked on the door, waited and waited but no one came to the door. I decided to knock harder and yelled real loud. I did not know that the neighbor was conducting illegal gambling and when she heard me she thought it was a raid from the police. How she did not recognize the voice that of a 10 years old girl was a mystery to this day? Suddenly people started running out the back door, then the alleyway, all because of my yelling. I apologized to the neighbor in front of my parents when she came over later to air her unpleasant experience.

I took photos of the door knob above and the next two below from the homes I saw on the way from the hotel to Metro station or around Rome.

The two door knobs (one above and one immediate below) were from Valletta, Malta. I like the one above because it was in the shape of a fish as I thought it was a clever design. The one below looked like it was made specifically for one of the Knights in the St. John's Order. The last (bottom of the entry) door knob was from Tunisia from a house near a market place. You could tell the design was influenced by Arabic culture.

VALLETTA, MALTA

Our visit to Valletta, Malta was very enjoyable and educational. We saw the Grand Harbour (photo above) as the ship approached the island. Located midway between Europe (Sicily, Italy) and North Africa, Malta was ruled by many foreign conquerers such as the Phoenicians (Canaan, an ancient civilization similar to Greece, the modern day Lebanon, Syria and Israel - the Bronze Age maritime power), Romans, Arabs, Normans (the Normandy from France), Castilians (northern Spain), French and Britains. The island is well-known for its oldest free-standing prehistoric temple structures in the world. In the center of the Mediterranean, Malta has no rivers. The island water supply comes from natural underground such as wells and desalination plants (modern technology provides extraction of salt from sea water before it is pumped into a reservoir).
Malta gained independence from the British in 1964. Valletta is Malta's capital city. The above photo was a view from the Barraka Gardens overlooked the Grand Harbour. Malta's official languages are Maltese and English. Italian is widely spoken and Arabic language has influence on the Maltese pronunciation. Our tour guide, Maria, and the driver, Mannuel, spoke British English. And people in Malta drive on the left as in England. It took awhile for me to get used to seeing traffic coming on the right or our bus driving on the left as if going in the wrong direction, without screaming outloud :)
My husband had a special reason to enjoy being in Malta as the parents of his best friend, AC, from the 5th grade were originally from Malta. CP and AC were childhood friends and they used to live on the same street in Detroit, Michigan. AC was the best man in our wedding. AC was born in Detroit and his family moved to Malta for a few years when AC was about 6 years old. The parents decided that America was much better for the family and the children, so they moved back to the States permanently and only visited Malta on vacation. We thought how surprised AC would be when he received a postcard we sent from Malta as we did not tell AC in advance of our trip.
It would be interesting to watch the movie, Gladiator, and see familiar city walls and recognize fortifications in Malta as the island was a substitute location when it was supposed to be Rome. The colosseum in the movie was built with plywood and temporary building materials plus computer graphics. This is nothing new in the movie industry as most of Rambo movies were filmed in Thailand and the people who were supposed to be Viet Cong or Vietnamese all spoke Thai or non-Vietnamese language.

Photos (above & below) showed the great legacy of the Knights of St. John starting with the fortified city of Valletta and the unique design and architecture of many cathedrals and churches. These deep walls that were built in the 15th century, despite heavy bombing during World War II, still stand today.

ALL ROADS LEAD TO ROME

Greetings to all of my adoring fans. My sincere apologies (again!) for not posting the last few weeks. Your guess is correct, I was on vacation and finally sorted thru all the photos to select only the best and meaningful snapshots worthy to be posted. My husband and I started our 8 days/7 nights Western Mediterranean cruise and a 3-day stay in Rome after the cruise. We left St. Louis at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, June 28th, connected to a 3:30 p.m. flight from Chicago and arrived at Rome's Leonardo Da Vinci International Airport around 7:30 a.m. on Sunday, June 29th. We were greeted by a car service agent (good thing he was holding a sign with our last name as we were too sleepy to look for the company logo on his uniform) and enjoyed a little over an hour ride from the airport to the port of Civitavecchia. We finally embarked and settled into our stateroom at 2:30 p.m. - we took a nap and got up just in time for our 7:00 p.m. dinner seating!
We spent a beautiful sunny day in Cannes and Nice. We walked along the famous "Promenade des Anglais" and around the colorful market square with sidewalk cafes and restaurants.

These photos (above and below) were taken while we were in Portofino, a quaint fishing village south-west of Genoa, Italy.

I was not quick enough to get a nicer photo of the sign (above) in Valletta, Malta.

I captured these photos (above and below) showing road signs in Arabic when we were transported by bus from the port of La Goulette to visit the archaelogical site in Carthage.
We disembarked around 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, July 6th, with our luggages in tow, boarded the train from Civitavecchia into Rome (about an hour and a half ride), then caught the Metro (a two-lines subway, efficient but on a very small scale compared to New York City subway) from Termini (Main Station), walked on cobblestone streets after getting off at Lepanto station and finally settled in our hotel room around 1:00 p.m. After a good shower and a short nap, we took the Metro to Berberini station, walked to Fontana di Trevi and Piazza di Spagna.

I promise to post photos and interesting details about our "very educational" vacation. Please check back often to read all the funny stories happened as we followed the roads that lead to Rome!