We were able to visit St John's Co-Cathedral in Valletta this morning, after thinking we would miss it. The funeral of the bishop took place on Saturday and it was reopened to the public on Sunday. Thinking there might be large crowds on the weekend, we waited until today. Arriving minutes after it opened we still had to wait in line to enter, and get "wanded" in a very cursory manner, and our bags were subject to a quick peek by security. Airline security staff would be appalled at the quick once-over we received. We were grateful.
The entrance fee included an audioguide, an absolutely essential piece of kit, to know what you are looking at. The information was lengthy and if you accidentally touched your cheek to the screen on the guide, you found yourself listening to a completely different narrative.
In the end, I moved freely around the cathedral and didn't visit the various chapels in sequence. I listened to enough to situate the particular chapel and then just gazed, open-mouthed in many cases. Mass is celebrated in each chapel once a year, on the feast day of the saint represented in the paintings or sculptures.
The recently deceased bishop lay in state in the Oratory where the Caravaggio painting of the beheading of John the Baptist is on display. His funeral was in the nave, or main body of the building.
The interior of this cathedral defies description. The opulence, the over-the-top "extras," the decorated floor, and the fact that this building is over 500 years old can't help but impress. Everyone visiting was blown away. And then I started to think about what the money spent on it could have done for those in need, the shine came off a little bit. But indeed ,I was impressed and glad that I'd finally seen it for myself.
I took far too many photos, some of which will be deleted, but here are a few to give you an idea.
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An overall look at the interior. Even the floor is incredible. I'm not certain
if each rectangle is covering a separate tomb or just another piece of art
accompanied by a Latin inscription. |
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The oratory with the painting of the Beheading of John the Baptist by Caravaggio.
I was not alone in the room, I just waited my turn to stand at the rope to take the picture. |
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There are two sets of organ pipes, high up to the left and right of the main altar. I never did see where the organ is that is connected with the pipes. I don't know if there is only one organ or if there are two. |
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A closer look at one of the panels found around the chapels. Each one is unique. |
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Our Lady's Chapel where you can enter to pray but must get no closer to take pictures.
This is by far the most ornate chapel and has the most silver of any of them. The objects
that look black are actually silver, including the 'fence'. No, it does not need polishing at the moment
so I imagine there must be staff whose job it is to dust and polish at night. That's my guess, based on nothing at all.
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When we had seen enough, we exited and wandered up a side street looking for a small cafe where we could enjoy a final cappuccino. We found the Museum Cafe and indulged in our last pastizzi along with the coffee. It was in support of the local economy you understand. The diet begins on Wednesday. Tomorrow we're travelling and will be subject to airline food. The meal on Air France is part of the air fare. The food available on the Air Malta flight to Paris is available for purchase. I have my breakfast sandwich already made and in the fridge.
As we sat waiting for the coffee, a crowd of tourists on a guided walk sauntered by. We felt like we were on display and contemplated giving them a royal wave. But, we didn't. It's not so obvious from this picture, but the seating was on a slant. Glenn and I were downhill from John.
Then it was time to catch a bus back to Bugibba for the last time. The service is quite dependable, although we'd been warned otherwise. The trick is to get on at one of the first few stops on the route so that you get a seat. We've been exceedingly fortunate in that regard. I commented recently that I never saw anyone offer a seat to a person who qualified for the priority seating when the bus was full. It happened twice today so my opinion of the locals has risen.
How they maintain anything resembling a schedule is amazing. The traffic is horrendous no matter what day or time you are using the service. I suppose they build that into the time estimates.
A few more musings before I sign off.
There is very little litter anywhere. Malta is very clean. They must somehow be related to Icelanders. Waste and recycling bins are found almost on every corner and they are well used. This is in contrast to the fact that bags of compostable waste (collected Mon-Wed-Fri), recycling,(Thursday) and general waste (Tuesday and Saturday) are placed in their colour-designated bags and simply left on the street in front of any apartment building or home. They don't have raccoons here so we've seen little spillage. Collection using large garbage trucks, every day, might be responsible for delaying some buses. What's magic is how the buses and trucks manouever on the narrow roads and streets.
There are human street sweepers who make sure that the streets remain clean, and that alone is impressive. They have a broom, a dustpan and a wheelie bin for what they sweep up. This morning we saw a group of employees hosing down and sweeping away the water from the area where we caught the bus. Imagine, washing the pavement, or maybe it was made of marble tiles!
Most of the staff in the hospitality industry are not native Maltese. They come on work permits that have to be renewed annually. If you come from a non-EU country it costs at least €300 to renew the permit. It is less expensive if you are from the EU. Getting permanent residence status is difficult, because this is the second most densely populated European country and immigration isn't really encouraged. Vatican city has 1800 people per square kilometre and Malta has a mere 1686.
There are a number of derelict buildings in the cities. It made me wonder if they have a homeless problem. With so many empty buildings, isn't that wasting valuable real estate? Maybe they are awaiting renovations. Most people live in apartments and each one seems to have a balcony of some sort. The buildings seem to be joined together. You know when it's a different building because the balconies vary from one to the next.
The farmland consists of quite small plots and I've seen no evidence of motorized machinery like tractors. I've seen farmers working their plots by hand with hoes and rakes. Grapes are harvested in late summer when it's very hot, so work begins at 5 am and ends at 10 am. Irrigation is from the ground water that they are able to access for the irrigation systems. The soil is very sandy looking and to me it's a miracle that anything grows. But it does produce amazing strawberries.
The photos have shown how hilly Malta is. What I have not taken pictures of are the sidewalks. They are usually of rather badly laid brick, mixed with construction panels on top of open spaces where they are burying wires, and other assorted bumpy unstable materials. You really must watch your step. We often walk on the road and watch for cars.
We've pretty much packed up our gear and enjoyed our final dinner at Michele's restaurant. We are in the midst of a final tidying up of the apartment and will try to get to bed early. The car taking us to the airport will be out front at 4 am for our 6:10 am flight to Paris. Alarms are set for 3 am. We don't anticipate the usual traffic at that hour.
This time we have four hours between flights in Paris. It took us three hours, with not a minute to waste, on our initial journey, just to get to the right part of the terminal, check in again and go through security twice. I hope we have time for a coffee and croissant between flights this time.
I will write a final post after getting myself sorted out back in Ottawa. I welcome any comments you have on any of my posts.
The Wandering Genealogist
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