Travel date: October 30, 2014 at approximately 4:00 p.m.
We finished checking into our apartment in the old town of Valletta after 4pm. A simple apartment, but very clean.
Looking at the reviews on Booking.com, it seems that some Japanese people have used this hotel. The rating is also very good.
Well, Valletta is a very small city. It takes about 5 minutes at most to walk to the center from the apartment where we are staying. However, the center of the city is located on a hill, so you need to take the stairs to get there. Our apartment is located on the sea side in a slightly lower altitude area. However, even though we had to climb the stairs, it wasn’t that steep.
Valletta, Malta at the end of October, we thought it would be a bit warmer than Tokyo in the same season, but actually it was a bit warmer than we imagined. In fact, it was a bit warmer than we imagined it would be, and short sleeves seemed to be sufficient in the sunshine.
時間は午後の4時。もうこちらは冬時間になっており、観光地もだいたいのところが午後5時、もしくは午後6時に閉まるようです。はじめに受付が16時30分で終わってしまうという聖ヨハネ大聖堂へと向かうことにしました。
聖ヨハネ大聖堂、正式名称聖ヨハネ准司教座聖堂は、マルタを代表する歴史的建造物であることには間違いないでしょう。
Malta was developed by the Knights of St. John, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that the foundations of the current cityscape were laid by the Knights.
I don’t intend to describe in detail how the Order of the Knights came to be organized here, but I will tell you a little about it. It seems to have gathered the respect from each prince of Europe.
St. John’s Cathedral, located in the center of the city, is so gorgeous that it needs no explanation. The reason why it’s so gorgeous is because it was so revered that it attracted a large amount of donations from European princes.
By the way, there is a fee to visit the inside of the cathedral. Not from the main entrance, but from the side entrance. So we borrowed an audio guide of each language for free, and watched it while listening to it. There was an audio guide in Japanese. The audio guide is good, but it’s a bit of a hindrance for photography, especially for those who use an SLR camera (laughs).
続いては18時くらいまでやってそうだった騎士団長の館へと脚を運びましたが、係の人曰く、いまからの時間でも見れるけど、今日（木曜日）宝物庫しか見れないから、明日出直したほうがいいよ、と言われたため出直すことにしました。
So that’s it for today’s sightseeing. However, in preparation for tomorrow’s sightseeing, I decided to explore the city a little more with a preliminary investigation.
First of all, we went to the fortress at the tip of the city for the groundwork. I had heard from the guidebook that a parade of people dressed as medieval knights was regularly held here, but there was no way to find out the schedule on site, so I decided to find out after returning to the hotel.
While taking a detour to see the harbor at dusk, we return to the center of the city.
The other purpose of my visit was to attend a concert at the Manoel Theatre in Valletta. We were very lucky, they are holding a classical concert tomorrow, Friday.
So I bought a ticket at the ticket window, and a box seat right behind the 3rd floor was 30 euros per person, which is quite reasonable.
This completes the groundwork survey for the day. We will return to the apartment.
After a little bed and lie down to rest, we went back into town. So where to eat tonight?
As usual, I searched on the TripAdvisor app. I narrowed it down to about two candidates. Yes, both of them are almost next to each other.
So we chose this restaurant, which has a slightly higher rating than the other two.
I didn’t make a reservation, but I was able to get in without any problem. But it was quite crowded, so if it was a little late timing, we might not have been able to enter.
Here we first ordered some local Maltese wine. White wine, very good dry wine. It was delicious. By the way, I liked it so much that I bought the same brand of wine at the airport on the last day.
For our meal, we ordered octopus salad, mussel pasta, and a dish of rabbit meat. As usual, it’s a big meal from the first day (laughs)
The octopus salad and the mussel pasta have a lot in common with southern Italy and Sicily.
I heard that rabbit meat is rather popular in Malta.
This restaurant certainly gets good reviews on TripAdvisor. It is very delicious. However, I think that the taste was a little strong. And the amount is too much. I asked for a little too much (laughs)
By the time we finished eating, the city lights had calmed down considerably and there were hardly any people in the center of town. It was still 10 o’clock in the evening, but it was very quiet. I thought it’s a small town and country after all. The guidebook says that the new town side is lively even at night or late at night, but I prefer the quiet and beautiful streets, so I have no problem at all.
After arriving at the apartment, I immediately took a shower and went to bed. A long day is finally over.
Tomorrow is the first day of full-scale sightseeing, but there are only two full days left. Tomorrow will be a hectic day.
（続く）
