Victory And Vitoriossa

After a rather busy and eventful birthday, we opted to take some rest on Thursday morning and have a lie in. Part of the reason why is because the bed in this hostel is insanely comfortable and the room is at just the right temperature with the window open. Certainly I have never wanted to stay in bed as much as I've felt here, and that is saying something when compared to my usual laziness.

We got up around lunchtime and instead of going to Gozo, which would be a day trip, we opted to tour around the Three Cities instead. The Three Cities - Vittoriosa, Senglea and Cospicua - are working communities on the peninsulas just south of Valletta. Vittoriosa is the city with most to do, formally named Birgu and renamed after the Great Siege. Work here was often based on the dockyards on the natural harbours below, particularly when the Royal Navy based its Mediterranean fleet here.

One of the sights we went to see was the Maritime Museum, situated in the old naval bakery. This museum was great if you liked ships but if you don't, it did drag a fair bit. There is a deconstructed steamer on the ground floor which was interesting from an engineering point of view - particularly the steel girders with Dorman Long Middlesbro' on them, which is my home town - while the first floor was given over to the history of the Royal Navy on Malta. This has some interesting insights, such as small details of naval life like the illicit dice carved out of bone and used for gambling. They also had hashish pipes and local prostitutes' licences too. There was an interesting exhibit on Admiral Nelson's view on Malta, with the British agonising over whether to keep it as a colony or give it back to the Knights of St John when the defeated the French in 1800. The efficacy of Malta as a harbour, and particularly its proximity to France and Italy, was a huge factor and the Maltese desperately wanted to be a British colony. They got this wish and there were details of many reforms such as legal changes and the building of public gardens in an attempt by the British to further endear themselves to their new subjects. Aside from this though, the exhibition was rather dry, with the usual information about guns and semaphore and the like. The three concessions highlighting three dates in September which were important in Maltese history - 1565 and the ending of the Great Siege, 1800 when the British kicked out the French and 1943 when the Italians surrendered on Malta in WWII was another eye opening section.

We got a Heritage Malta card earlier in the week, giving us free access to all museums under their umbrella for the course of 15 days for the sum of €35 each. This has allowed us to focus on our touring as we are determined to get value. One of the HM members of staff has seen us do this as she has checked our tickets in no fewer than three venues over the last 36 hours. Perhaps they have cloned her or something. Anyway, one of these was the Inquisitor's Palace, which is right in the centre of Victoriossa. Built in 1530, it acted as a law courts until the 1570s when it became a tribunal and prison of the inquisition. Later, 12 robust cells were built as well as a torture chamber downstairs, which still had a range of instruments inside, all designed to stretch the muscles in order to induce confession. Despite the reputation of the inquisition, torture was quite a rare practice in Malta and was only used when it was clear a defendant was lying in face of the facts placed against him. The prison cells were more fascinating though, containing as they do a range of seventeenth century graffiti by the inmates carved directly into the stone wall. This humanised the situation, making you appreciate the gravity of what had gone on here. We also saw the latrine, along with the discolouration of the stone wall caused by the persistent acid erosion due to falling faeces.

The sections away from the dungeon contained a chapel, a range of halls, a staircase and the prison warden's room. On the exterior wall outside of this, one of the wardens had carved a crude sundial into the stone so he knew when he needed to visit the prisoners. Contrary to popular belief, the welfare of prisoners was important, both physical and spiritual both before and after a trial. The whole point of the inquisition was to get defendants back on the straight and narrow after they had committed a range of crimes against the Faith. The rest of the museum was a little superfluous really, containing a range of religious sculptures from local artists and a section on Christmas nativity scenes from around the world.

However, one of these exhibits was most interesting - the Fort St Angelo National and Cinematic Icon section. Fort St Angelo is the iconic fortress in Malta, situated just off the coast of Vittoriosa. The fort heroically stood firm during the Great Siege of 1565 and featured prominently in the works of Matteo Perez d'Aleccio concerning this event. The fort was displayed on a range of memorabilia including postcards, stamps and coins, and indeed features on the reverse of the Maltese issued Euro cents coins at present. Unfortunately it's currently closed for renovation, funded by the EU, so we could t visit. However, in the Inquisitor's Palace we could find out about the Naval cinema built there, and five others built across Malta, in order to entertain the troops and provide a distraction from vices such as prostitution and drinking. Films here bypassed the Maltese censors and the Navy were also complicit in the making of four feature films in the late 20s and early 30s. All stars were either locals (who played the Turks) or military men. The story lines were love stories based around the theme of war, all of which were shot in the UK and Malta and some scenes were actually shot on board ship with the Navy's blessing. The cinema at FSA was in operatic from 1920 to 1977 and became more of a social club as time went on. This cinema is currently undergoing renovation and it would be great to see it restored to its original purpose. I certainly had no idea that the British forces were so dedicated to making movies.

Today was less windy than the previous two and with the sun out, it was very pleasant. We opted to have a walk by the waterfront, which now houses a range of expensive yachts from around the world, along with some expensive looking restaurants overlooking Isla. We also checked out the old Sacra Infermeria, the first hospital built in Malta by the Knights of St John upon their arrival. We even saw the stone steps at Bighi Sally Point, where the wounded were brought to the hospital by boat under the cover of darkness.

We also got ourselves lost in the charming narrow streets of the old town, spying the buildings where the knights first stayed before Valletta was built some 40 years later at Il Collachio. We also saw the two monuments on the main square, Misrah ir-Rebha, the Victory Monument built in 1705 to commemorate the Great Siege and a statue of St Lawrence, the patron saint of the city, which was built in 1880. We also saw the Church of St Lawrence, again with its two clock towers in symmetry, one clock with the right time and one with the wrong time in order to confuse the Devil.

With a little time to kill, we tried to find a local Maltese restaurant recommended by the guidebook. Apparently it is "tucked away" but so tucked away that we could not find it. Still, it was a pleasure to roam down the narrow romantic streets as the sun was setting, turning the gold hue of the buildings into a copper colour. Instead, we opted to go to a local wine bar to sample some more Maltese wine, this time a white one. Maltese wine is more expensive than its counterparts from different countries as growing space is limited and so it's harvested in batches. The quality is sublime though, with intenser flavours, partly due to the limestone soil and plenty of sun the grapes get here. Chardonnays in particular are Maltese specialities. With this, we also tried some Tal Laram, a slightly spiced Maltese snausage which is extremely piquant in colour. We had it on some dry crackers and the wine complemented it well.

With two buses to catch back to our hostel - a five mile journey in an hour - we opted to head off at this point. We stopped off at the impressive yet understated white stone war memorial with its eternal flames just outside the bus station in Valletta between buses while I had to laugh at the eccentricities of the Maltese bus drivers, who are either impertinent, frustrated or charming depending on who you get and when you get them.

Soon we were back in Sliema and determined to try a local family run restaurant (since 1978 apparently) which served traditional Maltese food, Il-Merill. We had spotted this on one of our walks along the beach a few days previously but had not been in that part of town again until now. The restaurant only had nine tables and sat just 32, but we were in luck as that had spaces. I opted for Widow's Soup (soppa tal-armla) for starter - a vegetable based soup made from green and white veggies predominantly, with some carrot and ricotta thrown in for good measure. It was the traditional hearty fare that we are becoming used to here and very reminiscent of my mother's homemade vegetable soup. Suffice to say it was delicious. Wolfie had a Maltese mezze, which included the most delicious goats cheese coated with black pepper ever, both flavours just complemented each other so well. For main, I opted for rabbit (fenek), pretty much the national dish here, as it was once a symbol of feudal repression as the peasantry were banned from eating it. The meat just fell off the bone and it was served with sautéed potatoes and carrots and zucchinis. Wolfie had bragioli, thin slices of beef wrapped around a stuffing of breadcrumbs, bacon, egg and parsley. This too was delicious, a little like beef stroganoff, while we also sampled another Maltese white wine with it. On another table an Irishman was speaking French to a French couple, emphasizing the cosmopolitan yet homely feel of the place while the fridge freezer in the main serving area also added to a home-cooked feel. We got lucky as I had ordered the last Widow's Soup of the evening and I would not have missed that for anything. Definitely the best meal of the trip so far and that's saying something as Maltese food so far has been so consistently good it's almost unreal.