Sicily and Malta Trip Report
Trip Background
November 17, 2018 to November 25, 2018
This was a seven night family trip from November 17th to November 25th for our Thanksgiving trip. I think it was an episode of Amazing Race that put Malta on my radar. I loved the look of the fortress walls on the bright blue waters. There was just something magical in my mind about the place. And I couldn’t shake it. I mistakenly thought there wouldn’t be enough to do there for a full week trip and once I saw how close it was to Sicily, memories of watching the Godfather came back and I had visions of hillside towns and amazing food.
I booked a flight into Palermo and then out of Malta and figured I would figure out the rest later. And that’s where the trip planning became difficult. I hadn’t realized that Sicily was the size of New Jersey and that there was so much to see and do. And while Malta is tiny, there was a lot to do there, too. And we didn’t want to change hotels every night. So that limited our options and I realized we’d just have to get a taste of both.
Since we were flying into Palermo, it made since to start there. We decided to take the ferry to Malta and the shortest ride is from Pozzallo. A small port town in the very southeast corner. Since it would make sense to stay close to there, we chose Ragusa over the more popular Syracuse. We could daytrip from there. I liked the idea of a hillside town in Sicily. Because we’d only be in Malta for three days, I wanted to stay in the capital city of Valletta.
The most logical split for us ended up being 2 nights in Palermo, 3 nights in Ragusa, and then 2 nights in Malta. We’d then have to blow a travel night in Frankfurt as the connections didn’t work out to fly out in the same day. Spending extra time in Germany is never a bad thing in my book. A chance to eat schnitzel and drink German beer brings me back to my childhood. But, in retrospect, you could easily spend a week or two in Malta and a month in Sicily. I’m still travelling too fast and will learn to slow it down some day.
Also, I took all my pictures the first couple of days on a Canon DSLR that I lost (with all of its pictures) in a bathroom in Agrigento. Then I had to switch to an outdated iPhone. So my pictures aren’t great but I will still share them since they help tell the story.
Let’s Get Started!
Day 1
We arrived in Palermo around 5pm and it was already pitch black. I rented a car from the airport and had to experience my first driving in Sicily at night. It wasn’t too bad as most of the driving was on the Autostrada from the airport. But, once we got off the road, things got a bit more interesting.
I’ll do just one disclaimer on driving in Sicily. It’s intense. Part of me enjoyed it and part of me hated it. It’s extremely stressful. Basically, traffic rules are optional. Lanes? Optional. It’s like that old game Paperboy where things are constantly jumping out at you in the street. Cars, people, cats, etc. Expect anything. Narrow roads and streets that should only fit one car but somehow fit two as you drive a wheel up on the sidewalk. You get used to it the more you drive, but it’s still just a huge relief every time you park. You’ll need to either drive or hire a driver to get the most of your trip to Sicily in a reasonable time frame. The public transportation between cities just isn’t efficient.
We decided to stay in a the tiny beach suburb of Mondello rather than Palermo, because all of the blogs and forums said to absolutely avoid driving in Palermo. We were there for just two nights and I didn’t want to waste the time backtracking to a rental car place later, and it was cheaper to have an extra day of rental car than the taxi from the airport to Palermo. Staying in Mondello was a great decision. It’s a beach town that’s probably crowded in the hot summer months but in November felt quiet and quaint. We booked an AirBnB that was right on the coast with a terrific view of the sea.
We head about 8 o’clock and were the first ones looking for a restaurant. It’s the offseason in a beach town, so I expected it to be quiet, but the Sicilians eat really late as the places were packed at 10:30 as we were leaving.
We stopped at Poldo2 because they had a large menu which would give our kids the most options. I ordered the prosciutto pizza and the Gran Riserva Peroni, but immediately regretted not picking the pistachio pizza.
It was pretty decent, but it didn’t blow me away. We were home and asleep by 11pm.
Day 2
Nice thing about jet lag is waking up early and catching the sunrise. We finally got to see our view.
Palermo
Catacombs, cathedral, ballaro market, quatro canti, pedestrian street, first experience with a cannolo. Pasterando after rejection. Teatro messo. Bus fiascos. Took at long terrace Back to poldo2. Pistachio pizza. Top 5 thing I’ve ever eaten.https://www.poldo2.it/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/PISTACCHIOSA-Pizza.jpg
Ragusa
Shitty dinner, one wrong turn.
Turkish stairs. Temples. Arancini and pizza with a hot dog on it.
Modern AirbnB
Ragusa
Modica, ok chocolate. Cool city, but not much to see or do.
Ragusa
Drove to Syracuse. Parked in the wrong spot. Walked to Diana fountain, then Leonardo da vinci museum and then realized we needed to move the car. Walked to duomo and had lunch. Then to the end castle. Back to Apollo temple and then back to car.
Stopped in Noto for gelato but both places were closed. Still had good gelato right by the duomo. Still no pistachio gelato. Noto seemed more lively even though it was smaller than Ragusa. And it is so close to Syracuse that it might be better for a stay. But, you’ll miss that view. And I love that view.
Went to Eurospar for groceries, then Dropped off the car. Taxi back to the apartment. Made a red/cream sauce and pesto cream sauce with pan fried chicken. Turned out great. Everything at the store was so fresh.
Malta
We woke around 8am and my wife and I walked back down and up to Ragusa Ibla. After the third time, it didn’t seem as long. Though my hamstrings were still barking when I reached our apartment. I wanted to see the town during the day to see if it livened up at all. There were certainly more people milling around than at night. But, not liked you’d expect if people were really living in the city. The town just seems abandoned. I’m sure many people were on holiday as it’s the offseason, but it was still a bit eerie. We did find a little coffee/bar/gelato stand open and had two fantastic cappuccinos and a cannolo. Then we walked back. Ibla is a really cool town, but there’s not anything to actually see or do there. It’s really just worth it for the view and if you were to go to the Michelin restaurants.
We packed up and cleaned up the apartment. I arranged for a driver to take us to the port in Pozzallo and to pick us up at 12. It’s only a 35 minute ride and the ferry didn’t leave until 2:30. But, I didn’t want to leave anything to chance in case I had to find another way down there. I used bravodriver.com and cost 60 Euro. Everything worked perfectly. The driver arrived early and spoke English well enough for us to get by.
So were at the port at 12:30. The ferry offices were closed and there’s no terminal. We had all of our luggage and no where to go for 2 hours. We were the only fools to show up 2 hours early. The driver pointed out a bar/restaurant at the farside of the port. So, we walked there to see it if was open. It was. We grabbed tables, but then found out they had no electricity. We could only order water or beer. We ordered water and waited.
Boarded the ferry which was huge. Because it’s a car ferry, it was much larger than I expected. So, it was a pretty smooth ride considering that I heard the seas can be a bit rough in the winter. The ride lasted 1:45 minutes and went fast. We came into Valletta as the sun was setting over the town. It was very pretty, but the pictures turned out like shit. And we didn’t get the best view from the boat as it goes around to the commercial harbor.
Grabbed a taxi just outside the terminal and 15 minutes and 15 Euro later we were at our AirBnB. This place is in the heart of Valletta just a couple of blocks from the main drag and two blocks from the water on the north side of the harbor facing Sliema. I booked because it had 2 bedrooms and a rooftop terrace. I had no idea there’d be a spiral staircase that goes up about 4 extra floors to get to the roof. But, it’s worth it. The views were phenomenal.
We relaxed for a few minutes, but every minute in Malta was going to be precious so I rallied everyone quickly. We walked down past the opera house and out the main city gate to the Triton fountain. Then we walked back to find a place to eat. I had planned to go to D’Office Bistro, but it ended up being closed. Which seemed crazy because it was Thursday and there were a lot of people out. I’m afraid it shut down and google didn’t find out. So, then we were on to plan B. But, on the way to plan B we walked by the Food Market which looked like a really cool food hall. We peaked in and it was. It wasn’t going to feel like an authentic Maltese dining experience, but we’d all get food that we wanted and would enjoy. And that was just fine for tonight. I bought the Maltese sausages which had a lot of flavor and ate some of kids’ pastas. Also had a craft beer brewed for the Valletta 2018 European Capital of Culture.
Then we got gelato at Amorino. We had their gelato in Porto as well and it’s really good. I was finally able to eat pistachio gelato and it was good. But, I was a bit underwhelmed compared to the basic chocolate gelato when eaten side by side. Maybe that just meant that the chocolate was just that good.
It was a bit crazy to be around people again as we felt like we were the only people travelling through Sicily earlier in the week and now Malta was alive and full of people. If this was Malta in November, then I can’t even imagine the crowds during the summer season.
Finished up with two beers on the rooftop. Drank the Cisk which is a local lager and the Farson’s Blue label which was a creamy amber. The Farson’s poor out like a draught and was really pretty good. Then it was in bed and asleep by 11pm. We needed to be ready for a big day.
Malta
This would be our only full day in Malta so we needed an early start. But, that’s always easier said than done. My wife’s back was hurting and I slept horribly. The airbnb’s pillows were 7 inches thick and my neck was killing me. I ended up using a stack of sheets as a pillow. But, we were out the door just after 9am. We had coffee and breakfast at Café Cordina and took a terrace outside. The coffee was good as always and I tried the pastizzi for the first time. They are basically puff pastries filled with either peas or ricotta. I tried both, and the ricotta was the clear winner.
From there we walked down the Lower Barraka Gardens for the view of the harbor and War Siege Memorial. We then backtracked back along the city walls and found the Lascaris War Room. My kids are huge fans of board games like Axis & Allies and Risk, so I thought they’d get a kick of the real war maps used during WWII to plot the invasion of Sicily. Our guide gave a passionate and thorough story of Malta’s role during the war. It was a bit too lengthy for the kids, but I learned a few things and appreciated that he was into it. The tour cost 25 Euro for the family and lasted about a half hour.
Then we climbed out of the bunkers and up to the Upper Barraka Gardens. You get great views of the harbor from there and of course it was the most heavily touristed area. A few school groups and instagrammers to dodge, but it’s worth the trek.
We walked back to the Triton fountain and bought a prepaid taxi voucher to Mdina from the taxi stand we saw the night before. I guess the city or the taxi association set this up to prevent the drivers from ripping off the tourists. It is nice to have a set price. It cost us 22 Euro for the ride and the ride took almost 30 minutes with a little bit of traffic. For a group of four, that’s a bargain.
We then got to walk through the old capital of Mdina and through the city gates which were most recently used in Game of Thrones as the gates of Kings Landing (even though much of the rest of Kings Landing is shot in Dubrovnik). It’s called the silent city as there are minimal cars and everyone is supposed to speak in hushed tones. I made sure the kids knew this, and it worked for about 5 minutes.
We weaved through the city and it’s just a smaller version of Valletta. Very pretty and impressive with small alleys and beautiful buildings and tiny piazzas. Our end destination is the one true restaurant in the town. The Fontanella Tea Gardens. The restaurant is famous for their cake and their views. We took in the views and had some pizza. The pizza was a bit disappointing. It tasted just a step above pizza hut. Not bad. But, not what you expect in a Mediterranean country.
We continued the walk through Mdina. Grabbed a quick picture of Littlefinger’s House of Pleasure (another GoT show setting), and then were back out of the city. You only need about 30 minutes for Mdina. It’s pretty and worth it. But, if you don’t eat there, it’s all that you need. The food at Fontanella may not be great, but the views override that and justifies the effort of the trip there.
We took a taxi from Mdina to Sliema. The price was supposed to be 27 Euro, but I didn’t see a booth to prebuy the voucher. The taxi drover quoted 30 Euro and I went with it. I just wouldn’t tip him and it would equal out.
He dropped us off at the waterfront and we walked through the busy streets. It was Black Friday so there were a lot of people out shopping and carrying bags. The driver said it wasn’t normally like that at 3pm on a Friday in November. It was shockingly busy. But we walked along the water and that’s where you get the best views of Valletta. Eventually we ended up at The Terraces which is the only restaurant on the harbor side of the road and we got the best table with the postcard view.
Back to rest. Some writing on the rooftop. Then dinner at Pulled Meat and then the Food Market again.
Frankfurt
We landed
Overview.
Sicilian men just standing around which is ironic because they drive so fast and seem to have no patience.
The driving is intense. Like a video game
The food is good. Fresh.
Malta drives on the left and uses the UK outlets. We weren’t ready for that and assumed they’d be the same as the Italians. Our mistake.
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I do have to recognize I wrote the majority of this trip report drinking a beer while on a rooftop terrace in Valletta looking out at the fortress walls hugging the harbor. And for that, I do feel extremely grateful.