Some Malta photos...

...that didn't come out as well as last year's, probably because I was always on the move, chasing my grandfather down. For 86, the old devil is pretty spry, although to be completely honest, I really could've lived my life without the tales of all the women who succcumbed to his charms. Seriously, there's nothing like taking a walk down memory lane with your grandfather describing what a ladykiller he was. Best was when we ran into random little old ladies and they'd be batting their geriatric lids at him, going "oh, hel-lo Feliche!" and then babbling on in Maltese and I'm all, I really don't want to know how you two know each other.

I had so many funny stories to share and I couldn't wait to blog, but it's been two weeks and they seem to have all left me. I wrote them down in my moleskine but also can't be bothered to get off my chaise. So, some very blurry photos - no, you're not drunk. Or at least you can't blame the gin.
1. First off, we went to this crazy wedding with 1600 people in attendance. I initially thought the number was just my grandfather's Maltese penchant for exaggeration, but there was seriously a representative sample of the population at this thing. And an excessive amount of skintight Roberto Cavalli. Oh, and lots of ice sculptures. And fruit...carvings. Someone put a lot of effort into these details.

2. My cousin's adorable kids - one of whom, Emma, is pictured to the left. She called herself Claudia Schiffer all night and showed us how to do cartwheels. She and her older sister Sarah (all of age 10) and I ate fruit and played with our hair and talked about boys who tried to kiss them. And we talked about the Great Siege of Malta in 1575 (I'm not kidding).

3. The famous floor of St. John's Co-Cathedral that entombs (is that a verb?) many of the Knights of the Order of St. John (pictured right). It's really spectacular, huge rectangles with painted skeletons dancing or holding scrolls written in Latin. An amazing sight. Don't wear heels.

4. St. John's Co-Cathedral (pictured left). It looks deceptively simple from the outside and inside is a riot of color and sculpture. Each of the Orders - the French, Spanish, Italian, German, etc of the Knights had their own vestibule that they decorated with nationalist and religious symbols and tributes to their patron saints. The Caravaggio, St. Jerome, no longer hangs in the Italian vestibule but in a separate room, alongside the Beheading of St. John the Baptist. Incidentally, Caravaggio hated Malta. As did most of the Knights when they arrived. Hey, to be fair, they'd just been kicked out of Rhodes, which sounded pretty sweet.

5. The Mdina Cathedral (pictured right) lit up for the outdoor opera concert...the orchestra was seated right in front of those doors. A gorgeous night, incredible singing, Calleja did Nessum Dorma (but shhhh, I still think Licitra beats him out on the ending) and a host of other lesser-known but really wonderful songs. His wife, who is Moldovan, blew him out of the water - a really gifted soprano.

6. To the left, the empty seats after the concert. Those doors and windows all around are houses, and people were standing in their windows and on their balconies for the music, lucky ones.

7. To the right, a street in Mdina - the contributions of 400-odd years of Arab rule include most of the Maltese language and the name of their former capitol, Mdina - which, like most streets in Mdina, is like something out of a movie...very narrow, very quiet, all stone, and it's as though life doesn't exist there, it's jarring when you actually see someone, as though the city has a presence and people upset the balance. It's my favorite city in the world.