Dateline: Valletta, Malta. This island is a very nice place. It has a great natural harbor, is located centrally between Alexandria and Barcelona, is close to Sicily, spent nearly 200 years as a British dependency, and is now independent and a member of the EU.
The Britishness of it helps, and it has a strong Italian flavor as well. The native language evolved from Arabic with considerable Italian thrown in, but just about everybody speaks English. The Maltese language may be Arabic but the religion is Roman Catholic. The tiny island has enough churches that you could attend mass in a different church every day of the year! It also has two cathedrals, but calls one a co-cathedral since they only have one bishop to share between them. There is one mosque.
The island was the property of the Knights of St. John for several hundred years before the Brits took over. The Knights are a Roman Catholic organization with some members who take vows of chastity, etc., and others who are married. They started in Palestine during the Crusades and began as a hospital order which cared for the sick; they continue to fulfill that function to this day. During various periods they also developed a strong military arm with both army and navy. The point of this military function was to keep the forces of Islam from expanding, a purpose at which they were only partially successful. They fortified Malta to keep Islam from overrunning Sicily and Italy, this was a success.
I think what the other DrC and I liked about Malta is that it is clean, tidy, and yet has a 15th-16th century feel about it. Although it suffered many severe bombing raids during World War II, it has been rebuilt in the old style and is very picturesque. The Knights of St. John were an elite group and they brought to Malta the flower of European style and civilization in their heyday. Malta is still their headquarters although they no longer control the island nation. It would be a great place to wander around for about a week with camera in hand.
