Where the hell is Malta?

"Malta - that tiny rock of history and romance." Winston Churchill, WWII, 1948.

We leave for Malta tomorrow! The first question we get asked is, "Where the heck is Malta?" Don't feel stupid, we had no idea where the heck it was either until we happened upon it in our search for the perfect place to spend two weeks alone together after more than three years of interruption in our lives. We wanted to visit Europe, but just couldn't narrow it down to a manageable vacation because there were too many places we wanted to see. We thought about just finding a place with a beach on which we could lay for two weeks, but then faced the reality that we are just not the type of people to lay on a beach for two weeks. We finally stumbled upon this group of tiny islands in our research.

The Maltese Islands lie in the center of the Mediterranean, about 93km south of Sicily and 300km north of Libya. The archipelago is made up of the islands of Malta, Gozo, and Comino, plus the tiny uninhabited islets of Cominotto in the north and Filfla, about 5km off the southern coast. Together ,the islands make up a mere 316sq km. Malta, the largest of them, is only 27km at its longest point from northwest to southeast, and 14.5km at its widest point, from east to west.

Malta was first inhabited around 5000 BC. There are ruins that predate the Egyptian pyramids by 1,000 years. The islands have been ruled by the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Italians, French, Aragonese, Spanish, and most recently, the British. St. Paul was shipwrecked on the islands in 60 AD and brought Christianity. St. John established the Maltese Cross, which represents the eight Beatitudes. Today, most people are Roman Catholic, however, the Arab influence is evident in the fact that they believe that Jesus's father is Allah.

In WWI, Malta was 'the Nurse of the Mediterranean', providing 25,000 beds for the wounded. 1942 marked what the Maltese refer to as the Second Great Siege (the first occured in 1565) when over 6,000 tons of bombs were dropped in April of that year alone. In August, the German and Italian air forces suffered heavy losses over Malta, and in October, they conceded defeat.

We are spending our first week on the island of Gozo. From what we have read, Gozo offers a soothing respite from the crowded resorts and manic drivers of Malta. Although it is one-third the size of Malta, and has less than one-tenth of the population - only about 30,000, it is filled with many treasures. We are staying in the Kempinski Hotel in San Lawrenz (http://www.kempinski-gozo.com) and plan to use this week to just unwind and relax after the bar exam (for Diane) and a construction project from hell (Randy). We are spending our second week in the much livelier port of St. Julian's. We are staying at the Hilton (http://www.hiltonworldresorts.com/Resorts/Malta/index.html) and look forward to exploring Valetta and St. Julien's.

Supposedly, we are going to have internet access in both hotels, so we will attempt to update this blog on a regular basis. Check back over the course of the next two weeks for updates and pictures.