Syracuse and the Sandwich Artiste

Its interesting to return to a place that you've been before. We had been to Syracuse last year on our way to Licata and had spent a wonderful 5 days anchored in the bay. This time, I felt I had no need to madly run around and see all the 'mandatory' tourist sites.

Its a funny imperative that you 'have to visit' x, y or z.  If we were at home, we wouldn't feel the need to tour museums or art galleries, churches or monuments EVERY day. In fact, one or so visit a month would be more like our speed. But during our first years aboard, we would religiously trek around to every site, ancient and modern, to see the history and culture of the Mediterranean. It was great, but a bit like eating plum pudding; after the first bowl, the pleasure declines exponentially with every additional mouthful. Even now, other cruising friends will still exhort us... 'You simply MUST see' this or that. So to feel free of this burden was a delight.

Sea-side Syracuse

The main square in Ortega, Syracuse

Very attractive old town, flanked by sea on both sides

The road are charming.

The obligatory church ...

Another Baroque masterpiece

Having seen all the hustle, bustle and cockle grockle, I could focus on other things. And there is one other thing that is outstanding in Syracuse, and that is food. Its a foodie paradise, starting with the markets that have gorgeous produce at quite cheap prices.

Fruit grocer in Ortega markets

Megan spoiled for choice

Everyone gets in on the act

But the exemplar of food in Syracuse is the 'Sandwich Artiste' (for want of a better name) who puts on a truely extravagant performance in manufacturing the most delicious panini I have ever eaten. We were plied with samples of salami, prosciutto, the most wonderful buffalo mozzarella I have ever tasted, and more. Women were complimented and wooed, wine was drunk, all while just waiting for our sandwich.

Another tourist wooed by the Sandwich Artiste 

Warming up with a bit of pomodore action

One panini, for the princely sum of 5 euro, fed both Megan and I for lunch,  so much so that we skipped our evening meal as well. I had to document this feat of sandwich wizardry, so here are some sequential photo's of the process.

The blank canvas ...

The salad base, with no less than 4 varieties of tomato 

The first types of cheese

and then the mozzarella

Squashed olives and prosciutto

... and wait, there's more! 

Final assembly, what a production

The end result was simply delicious. Sometimes, I think Italian food is designed to look good (like all Italians), but doesn't necessarily taste so good (like some other Italians). Well, this panini tasted every bit as good as it looked. So, we salute the Sandwich Artiste, and Syracuse, a food heaven. Spit even enjoyed the place, cosy-ing up to some local colour.

Spit getting chummy with the locals!

Crossing

From Grand Harbour in Valetta, we sneaked south down to a tiny fishing harbour called Marsaskala to avoid a forecasted blow. It was such a secure and convenient anchorage, we ended up staying 3 days here. Here's a few photos from our sight seeing jaunt around the Grand Harbour.

Impressive buildings on the shores of the Grand Harbour

Pavlov enroute to Marsaskala

Superyacht moorings at Camper and Nicholsons.

An oil rig in for maintenance

A visiting German destroyer

Old forts on the southern shore of the Valleta peninsula

Watchtowers guarding the entrance

Pavlov anchored in Marsaskala

Marsaskala town 

Joe's fruit and vegetables

We kept bumping into folk we knew from Licata, it was like the whole wintering population at the marina were popping up over Malta. We met Jane and Tom, Wolfgang and Martina, and several others. Jane and Tom took our enculturation under wing, and dragged us into St Johns co-cathedral, where we saw two wonderful Caravaggio's, and then into the old Manoel theatre, third oldest still functioning theatre in Europe.

St John's Co-cathedral

Art in the cathedral

More, but we couldn't photograph the Caravaggio's

Baroque, in its full glory

Main altar 

One of thousands of mosaic floor tiles covering graves

Essence of Baroque

Jane and Megan

Manoel Theatre

Like all good things, Malta was wonderful, but we had to leave sometime. A promising weather window opened up, looked like we had some southerlies for a day or so. So we prepped Pavlov and departed early in the morning, bound for Porto Palo back in Sicily. Our promised wind did not appear, so we motored the 60 odd miles of the crossing, until the wind arrived just two miles off the Sicilian coast. It arrived with a vengeance, and we found Porto Palo to be very uncomforted and rolly. We snuck around the corner and anchored in the lee of Passero Island, finding a bit of shelter, and a couple of Aussies, who also wintered in Licata. John and Meagan and their catamaran, SeaFox were also seeking shelter. While we were chatting with them on VHF, a breaker interrupted, calling for Pavlov. Unbeknown to us, our old kiwi friends Bob and Joanie Issari from Nemir had anchored in Porto Palo, and were gritting their teeth with the wind. They tendered to the headland, and John picked them up on our side of the bay. We all had a wonderful re-union, kindly hosted by SeaFox. The cruising world is a very small world indeed!!

Malteasers

We departed Mgarr harbour on Gozo, and headed to a bay with some shelter on the mainland (if you can use that for an island about 10 miles long and 5 miles wide). St Paul's bay proved to be a good anchorage even though the wind is still blowing about 20 knots.

St Paul's bay

Spit found a good docking spot on the beach

We caught up with some cruising friends in the bay, Samanta and Wind Pony, both of whom wintered in Licata. It was easy to tender into the beach, and we caught a bus into Sliema, just outside of Valletta. Malta has a great bus system, making it very easy to get about the island. We're revelling in the freedom of being at anchor again, after being stuck in a marina for 7 months. 

So after a few days at St. Pauls, we were feeling adventurous and thought we'd try anchoring in St Julian's bay, in the centre of the posh area of Malta. The Hilton hotel has a very exclusive marina there, we checked it out and they charged 118 Euro a night, and only 'considered' allowing us to dock there. So it made it so much sweeter that we could anchor safely in the small bay. It was rather rolly, but it was an easy bus ride into Valletta.

St Julian's bay

That's the Hilton hotel just off St Julian's bay

St Julian's bay

Hilton Hotel ... 

... and its ridiculously expensive marina

Here kitty!

We caught the bus into Valletta, and we were quite floored by this city. It's striking, architecturally imposing, clean and modern, while having some amazing ancient buildings. We spent a day wandering around its lanes and checking out its harbour. We managed to see a rather intriguing small bay off the Grand Harbour, so we ear-marked that for later exploration.

Keepie Uppie expert.

Amazing modern restorations of the ancient city

This was a city built for war!

Large public spaces, this is Freedom Square

Typical street-scape

Lots of classical architecture

... and lots of British Imperialism... thats Queen Vic.

After two day's of exploring Valletta on foot, we were exhausted, so decided to let Pavlov do the work. We left St Julian's bay and took a trip by water around Manoel Island in Gzira harbour, and then into Grand Harbour. It was a thrill to navigate these impressive waterways.

Old fashions die hard .... imperialism lives on!

No doubt about the purpose of this town! That's a lot of gun ports.

Old WW2 gun emplacement overlooking Grand Harbour entrance

Delightful architecture

Entrance to the Grand Harbour

Looking out to sea

WW2 memorial, still tolls at midday for the fallen.

We had planned to go into Msida Creek marina (at 70 Euro's per night) but we found this wonderful little bay just inside the entrance to the Grand Harbour. We had thought that anchoring was prohibited here, and it probably is, but there was another small yacht swinging in Rinella bay, so we dropped our hook in there. What an ideal anchorage, right off the Grand Harbour with all the heavy duty shipping and huge ferries funnelling in and out, here we were in a protected cove with a sandy bottom, cafe on shore with wifi!! All mod cons!

Grand Harbour, Valletta 

More battlements

Great public sculptures

Heading to Manoel Island

Traditional Maltese smack

Super yachts in Msida

A couple of elegant beauties

Floating fuel bunker

Leaving Manoel Island bay

Entering the Grand Harbour

The traffic here was FAST and furious, this guy's doing over 30 knots.

Our little cosy hole, just off the Grand Harbour. Rinella Bay.

We have some weather on the way in, a low with 40 knot winds. We had planned to head south to Marsaxlokk Harbour, but now we love our little hidey hole in the Grand Harbour, we'll probably sit it out here. So we are now confirmed Malteasers, and love this place. We promise not to roll them down the aisle in the theatre!