48 Hours in Malta with Simon Calder

[Music] yeah [Music] [Applause] [Music] Malta is a small island at the heart of the Mediterranean with a widescreen history every wave of civilization has left its Mark making Malta a mosaic of cultures and a perfect place to discover in 48 hours the islands are wrapped in more than 100 miles of Coastline with warm inviting water and some lovely beaches and are sprinkled with dozens of towns and Villages many with impressive doed churches that decorate The Horizon Malta has some magnificent Mansions while side streets can take you deep into the [Music] past just 3 hours flying time from Britain lands you at Lua International Airport which is in the south of Malta very handy for everywhere so if you want to get to the capital Veta as I do you can either get a taxi oh which is € 15 one way and the good thing is they got a sign on there saying taxi if you're still not sure have a look at the registration number it always begins taxi if you're on a budget you might prefer the bus there's a clue the registration begins bus and also it looks like a bus to travel to the capital Veta costs €220 or you can travel everywhere you want to all day long for just [Music] €260 where am I well 60 Mi south of Sicily 160 Mi east of Tunisia and equidistant between jalta and the mouth of the Suz Canal at Port SED in Egypt the island of motor along with goo and Camino together are smaller than the bit inside the M25 but they are packed with all kinds of diversity and excitement the Island's most enticing location is the Sha Palace in the former capital Dina as the co-owner Susan zamit tabona told me it's where royalty and celebrities stay with some real Die Hard loyalists we had Bruce Willis here who didn't move out of his room for 4 days you know he was he was I think he was staying in this room too having been brought up and bred in imina the the houses in imina breathed differently so um you know there were things that they couldn't see and I said look I've Liv in an old house in all my life so I know how these buildings work and so anyway but it uh it was a lot of it was done with a lot a lot of love see if you can check into room seven it comes with a bit of a surprise not just the spectacular view across most of the island but the fact that you can enjoy it from the comfort of your own jacuzzi alternative Splash out on the hotel grand excelsia five well earned stars and very close to the center of the capital Veta or if you want to stay right in the heart of Veta then there's a number of Boutique guest houses that are opening up including Lanos where a perfectly comfortable and very individual double room is going to cost you €80 peak season including breakfast and with that you get this magnificent roof Terrace now I've been lucky enough to take a hike in some great cities around the world but nowhere is the process simpler than here in beleta trust me I've checked I'm at the start of St George's Street later Kingsway now Republic street it's exactly 1 km long you could walk it in 10 minutes but there's loads to see along the way what I love about the letter is that it's a distillation of Commerce and culture with endearing evidence of the British connection the UK took control two centuries ago until Malta gained independence in 1964 and the city is full of grand barck flourishes when maltes tour guides bring it Alan groups to St John's co- Cathedral they tell them prepare yourself for the most beautiful Sumptuous church you've ever seen and of course the Italians don't believe them they've got so many lovely churches of their own but just come and see what you [Music] think for a good definition of the word Barack look no further than this G gorgeous building from the extravagant marble floors through the explosion of guilt to the intricate ceiling paintings it is a wonder of the human [Applause] spirit this is what happens when you fuse military might with religious ambition a affection to Trump the [Music] Italians you'll rarely Walk Alone in the males Capital what brings the crowds to Veta is the sense of theater in the street life and the architecture created by the Knights of St John this Christian military order began by caring for pilgrims to Jerusalem and took part in the Crusades but in the 16th century the knights settled in Malta and began to transform the island with magnificent structures such as the grand Master's Palace for centuries this was the power base for the entire Mediterranean the Palace of The Grandmaster of the order of St John and today it's malta's equivalent of the White House the Office of the [Music] President further down Republic Street there's the chance to explore a fine aristocratic townhouse that's still occupied by a fine Aristocrat maresa Francis deiro gave me a tour and told me the history of this great house the house was built about 400 years ago 200 years it belonged to the Italian knights was built by the admiral of the order and then in the 18th century bought by a Mor's family and we show people the first floor in these houses the first floor is always called the piano nor where the main nice rooms are and then we go underneath the house to see a big system for water which all the houses early houses have and it was used as a bomb shelter in the second world war the hike along Republic street is so easy there's even a sign telling you where to stop but look do go and have a quick look over the wall because you can see St Elmo's Fort which was captured by the Turks in the great Siege and it later stood in for a Turkish prison in the film Midnight [Music] Express for lunch you can't do better than come to the cafe Cordina right in the heart of Veta and order a pasti these are the scrumptuous mtis pastries often eaten for breakfast but you can have one for lunch go on the cafe Cordina is busy 7 days a week and it's eleg an interior has become something of a tourist attraction in its own right with paintings on the ceiling depicting episodes in malta's turbulent history for my lunch on the run I've actually moved out to the Terrace because of course Malta is very much an outdoor culture because of the very benign climate and I've got my pasti there is a pea ptits there's a cheese ptits to wash it down the local soft drink Kenny acquired taste and neither of these is past its cell by date because they're all bait on the premises Veta is set to be European capital of culture in 2018 on account of its Heritage and creativity but before then you can immerse yourself in The Amazing Antiquity of the males Islands today the lettera is full of cultural Treasures but it didn't even exist in 1565 which was when the ottoman great Siege was finally defeated the very next year the order of St John decided to build a new home City on this very spot and they named it in honor of the grandm at the time Jean Dev valet do you like what he's got around his neck by the way found it in a Rough Guide the obge de provance built in 1575 to house the Knights of St John from Southern France today it's the home of the national museum of archaeology which goes pretty much as far back as you possibly can in the span of human [Music] history the museum is small and elegant as are many of its exhibits it contains some of the very earliest three-dimensional representations of the human figure such as the Sleeping Lady 5,000 years old and still in pretty good shape no not me the Venus of Malta this beautiful clay statuette that has been around since 3000 BC from the Waterfront in Veta you can get a water taxi actually more like a water bus across to victoriosa however you can also pay three or 4 for a ride in a day which is this beautiful kind of mes Gondola that's what I'm going to try hello thank you oh lovely [Music] ah there's no better way to appreciate the magnificence of balleta and the Splendor of the harbor there's also no better way to get across to victoriosa for a drink at one of the loveliest bars on the whole [Music] [Music] island soov vento which means under sale and it's the perfect place to begin if I may a crusade to taste the best males wines and then to sharpen your appetite still further wander through the atmospheric back streets of victoriosa victoriosa predates the capital Veta and it's where the Knights of St John first based themselves when they came to Malta nearly 500 years ago the narrow lanes and sense of calm take you back through the centuries this is one of my favorite corners of the island malta's spectacular Shoreline provides plenty of opportunities for Waterside drinking and dining but the most elegant restaurants crowd around St Julian's Bay this Chic and cheerful location together with an atmosphere of friendly rivalry between chefs means you can eat splendidly on fresh seafood prepared with Flare imagination and stardust this dish is going on my A-list talking of which Malta has always had a role as an outpost of Hollywood and pepinos has always had a role as the place that the stars come to dine Madonna Brad Pit Daniel Craig and most recently Tom Hanks have all eaten here but for a sad piece of movie history why not join me for a nightcap back in the lettera this is the pub no it's the pub that's its name the pub and it's the pub where Oliver Reed came to on the 2nd of May 1999 he was in town filming Ridley Scott's Gladiator and he decided to have a half of Shandy very sadly In This Very seat he passed away so come in here and drink to the health of the Hellraiser who is now in heaven heavens for my second day in molta I'm venturing beyond the present Capital Veta and starting in the former capital Dina it's known as the silent City but not today because I'm outside the Cathedral of Peter and Paul and there's a wedding taking place hooray I'm not invited but I'm going to have a quick peek it's said that after St Paul was Chip bre on Malta while on his way to Rome this was the location where he met the Roman governor of the island it's since become malta's principal place of worship but malta's spirituality goes much further back than [Music] that before Stonehenge before the pyramids The Temple at Nidra was created by the Neolithic people on the south coast of Malta and it is still resonant with the Echoes of the [Music] past beneath my feet are the remains of a bronze AG Village which I guess makes this a kind of Bronze Age Village Green now Malta is one of the most densely populated nations in Europe yet here on the Southern Shore there are some vast Open Spaces The Cliffs at dingley some of the finest Coastal scenery in the [Music] Mediterranean if you prefer a walk in a theme park well look at this Popeye Village in 1970 the film director Robert ultman was looking for somewhere to film popey starring of course Robin Williams He happened upon Anor Bay they built the set they simply didn't bother to take it down again [Music] Oho Malta is an open air nation of course and therefore lots of the shopping takes place in open air markets I've come to Masa schlock in the far south of the island and what happens here Monday to Saturday is you have a tourist Market lots of souvenirs then on Sunday everybody comes to town to buy all sorts of fresh stuff until 2008 Malta had its own currency the L one of very few worth more than a British pound since then of course it's joined the Euro system but with a Twist there is a maltes euro and it's an ideal souvenir price € some of the fish on sale here is still caught using the traditional maltes fishing vessel the lutu and what's distinctive about it is this the eye of Osiris supposed to ward off evil and bring Good Fortune ad 1530 the year that the Knights of St John first arrived on the island of of Malta and also the name of the Tratoria that will serve you up anything from a wedding breakfast to a Sunday brunch it's AA institution and this is a multiz platter which includes goats cheese roasted mtis sausage M bread some Capers there mtis biscuits little bit of Ary Coke along with a very nice coffee it's going to be less than €1 Splendid value Mediterranean island hopping one of the joys of travel and happily in the maltes islands it's very easy feries shutle between the northwest corner of Malta and the southeast corner of Goo 24 hours a day taking just 25 minutes and giving views of the third populated island Camino along the way the Mediterranean has sculpted the shores of Camino be beautifully the sea has carved out caves to Intrigue the sightseer and entic swimmers to take the [Music] plunge there's two reasons to come up here to the Shara Plateau the first is the beautiful views that you get across the island of Goo the second though is perhaps rather more important a world heritage site the oldest freestanding Monumental building on on the planet the name ganta derives from the later belief that only Giants could have created the structures a good guide like Vince debono helps you appreciate that what might look like a pile of old Stones is in fact an amazing achievement of an ancient island people this is the oldest Neolithic Monumental Temple uh ever built which survives to this very day it was great not just because of the uh effort needed to move all those giant stones and put them into place but because society which until then didn't have anything of the sort someone came with the inspiration and the motivation for the rest of the clan in order to do all this goat so's history isn't just Rich it's also deep delving further back into the past than anywhere else in Europe the Island's capital Victoria is a modest but alluring City full of lanes in which to get cheerfully lost and it's dominated by a citadel whose honey colored stones soften its military might today like the rest of Goo Victoria provides a welcome serene escape sometimes here in the middle of the Mediterranean you feel as though you're on the edge of the world but then you go a little further further turn a corner make a new discovery meet some more friendly hospitable people the males islands are gentle and generous and well worth 48 Hours of anybody's [Music] time [Music] he was in town filming Ridley Scott's Gladiator and he decided to have a half of Shandy very sadly In This Very seat he passed away may possibly have had three bottles of rum and several arm wrestling matches but I wasn't here the maltes islands are generous and giving no they're not generous and giving generous and gentle of course they are you adult what are you doing here get somebody else anybody can present programs here right [Music] okay

Channel: Mirabelle Comms

Views: 381,254

Keywords: Travel, Simon Calder, Tourism, Malta, 48 Hours

Id: 6_JQy8RH8EM

Length: 22min 17sec (1337 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 11 2013