My computer (well mostly the internet) is still not cooperating, I thought I'd throw a few more rough vacation preview photos up. I mean, who doesn't like to look at photos from other people's vacations?
At every intersection of narrow roads in Valletta, there are saints carved out of the buildings of each corner. Most, as you can see above, are in the process of delivering a stern warning to pedestrians.
Malta is home to the most outsized population of churches. Every town, no matter how small, has at least one church. Most have more, and they are usually enormous and ornate. This church in Rabat is actually the 3rd largest for a sleepy town that cannot be home to more than 20,000. The main church, the large St. Paul's cathedral, has a good reason for being named after St. Paul. Paul, shipwrecked on his way to Rome and an appellate audience with Caesar, stayed in the cave underneath the cathedral where he converted most of the island. There has been a church there ever since.
Again, Malta shows just how many churches can be in one township. Above is the 3rd or 4th tier church of Victoria, the main city of Gozo. From the walls of the citadel above Victoria (the citadel has its own cathedral), you can see 3 churches within a square mile, and about 20 churches scattered throughout the island's villages. Xewjieka, just down the road and only home to 10000 people, boasts one of the largest domed churches in the world. Why not? Below is Valletta, as seen from across the bay in Sliema. The entire walled city (which is nearly all of the peninsula) is a UNESCO site, and is over 400 years old.
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