Oct 18 – Fiumicino, Italy – Valetta/St Julien, Malta

Weather – 23º in Fiumicino, 25º in Malta

Steps – 10,108

Travel days are never fun, today was typical as far as travel days go. No delays, problems, or unexpected causes for frustration. I remarked to Chris today that one thing that would be a pro for a bus tour is no waiting around in airports. Bus tours have always seemed too busy and rushed for me (us) but there would be no waiting around for plane travel.

We took the hotel shuttle (€6 each) to the airport around noon for our 3:30 flight. Arguably, too early, but sit around at the hotel or sit around at the airport – I’d

Westin welcome

rather not be late to the airport. We were even too early to drop our bags, so had to wait for about half an hour for that. We of course checked Chris’ big suitcase as we did on the way over here, and this time we checked my small suitcase – although I’ve never had a problem with my bag being too big, it’s pretty big for a carryon size. Since we would be waiting for our large bag anyway in Malta…I figured I’d be more comfortable checking.

Despite the flight to Malta being only an hour we got a full meal – a cold meal, but a main, dessert, cheese, and bread! With a glass of Maltese wine of course. It was one of the fastest meals I’ve ever eaten!

The Malta airport is small, so we had our bags and were on the road (another Regent supplied ride) quickly. These Regent rides are efficient, but silent. There is little driver/passenger banter. I suppose we could have engaged James in conversation, but we didn’t. I was busy watching him drive on the ‘other’ side of the road – I forgot that about Malta.

busy pub street

We are staying at the Westin Dragonara for the next 2 nights…it is a lovely place. Not exactly modern, not old either, but lovely. It is a resort style hotel with multiple pools and restaurants (mostly closed due to a large Seiko function at the hotel.)

We were unpacking as our welcome gift arrived…fruit, snacks, and a bottle of wine…lovely. The room is about as big as the one we just left, but a lot more comfortable. Still has a rain shower head, but the wand thingy is at a height that’ll do for me.

After unpacking (there’s not much to unpack when we’re only here for 2 days) we enjoyed the wine on our balcony. It was almost too chilly, but still lovely.

Eventually, we ventured out. First to the Westin’s casino – had to sign up for their players’ card and we thought that was too much trouble. We weren’t planning to play but thought it might be interesting to take a walk through.

Then we walked up and down the tourist streets filled with bars and restaurants – it was thronging. We tried a couple of pubs, but they were packed. We settled on a pub-ish place. A couple of beers and a pizza and we were satisfied.