Day 572, 5 Jan '16, Malta Pass Day 1. What, pray tell, is a Malta Pass? Well first off it's the thing we were patiently waiting for in Turkey for weeks - before we spent a day exploring the vagaries of the Turkish Postal Service (perfect oxymoron). But more specifically, a city pass (or in this case a country pass) is where you cough up a certain amount, here €49 each, and then can go to as many attractions and sites within 3 days as is humanly possible. We are Pass Masters. There are 10 possible attractions to visit in Valletta, so we allocated Day 1 of the 3 Day pass to accomplishing all of them. No one's ever died from sightseeing. Have they??? Anyway, we gave it a red hot go and got to see all 10 as follows and in order of visit:
1. Our Lady of Victories Church - first church/building in Valletta and first resting place of the founder of the city, Jean Parisot de Vallette (started at 8.45 am)
2. National Museum of Fine Arts (9 am) - many works by Mattia Preti, the artist responsible for the St John's Co-Cathedral and also, a surprise, a beautiful JW Turner painting of Malta (not that he ever visited... knocked it out based on a photo).
3. (9.30 am) Malta 5D. What? suddenly more dimensions? Moving seats, 3D specs and a Maltese Falcon's eye's view of Malta and her islands. Included wind effects, snake at ankle effect and the smell of fresh bread. Actually very cool - and we were the first and only folks for the 9.30 am show. Peace & Tranquility!
4. (10.10 am) Valletta Living History. Another movie spectacular from a different perspective with re-enactments of key battles, modern insights into the city left behind. A city built by gentlemen for gentlemen according to the poet Coleridge. Also very good... and very happy we're using our whizz bang Malta pass as €10 for a 25 minute show is daylight robbery. James Bond only cost €5.50 and he kept us going for 2+ hours!
5. (10.45 am) National Archeology Museum. Malta has pre-historic temples and monuments that pre-date Stonehenge and the pyramids of Giza - which is saying something. 5000 years ago megalithic temples were raised on the islands with nothing other than sweat and basic stone tools. We're off to see the actual temples tomorrow... but today we came here to see the artefacts, sculptures and carvings taken out and preserved for posterity.
5A. (11.30 am) LUNCH - seems a bit early, but our fave cafe starts to run out of hot food by midday - so we stopped for compulsory relaxation, lunch and a coffee. Very nice. Breathe in, breathe out... And restart the stopwatch!
6. (12 noon) Grandmasters' Palace - Staterooms and Armoury. Posh. Frescoes, armour, upholstered walls and crystal chandeliers. We were very lucky that all the rooms were open - no state functions or visiting dignitaries today. Saw the throne room and the tapestry room (that was a bit dark for preservation purposes). The Armoury was an absolute dream of historic blood and guts and many and varied ways of inflicting both.
7. (1.00 pm) Travelling well. Manoel Theatre / Teatru Manoel. This is where we enjoyed the crazy, fun, rock&roll panto just before Christmas. Was so nifty to see the stage all open with work going on. Was built by one of the Grandmasters back in the 1600s and is the 3rd oldest working theatre in Europe.
8. (1.30 pm) Casa Rocca Piccola - Pictured is one of the residents, chatty fellow called Vulcan - One of our favourite visits of the day. We enjoyed a guided tour of this 16th C. Palace of a noble Maltese family. It's been in different hands for the last century or so... but also noble. In fact the lovely lady who took our tickets was in fact the Marchioness. We met the Marquis a bit later on at the end of the tour - the family are still in residence, though mainly use the palace rooms for entertaining. Also included a tour of the WWII air raid shelters dug beneath the palace that were once the cisterns to collect rain water. That's how advanced Valletta was when it was planned in 1565 - every single home had to have a cistern and also had to be connected to the main sewer.
9. (2.30 pm) Admittedly starting to wane by the time we sat down for the Malta Experience audio visual attraction. Just a movie on a really, really wide screen whacking 5000 years of history into 30 minutes. Already quite boffed up (that's well acquainted) with Maltese history after the last couple of weeks. Might have shut my eyes for a couple of minutes. James saw it all. Again. Wouldn't pay €10 for it... but... it was included.
10. (3.00 pm) And thankfully right next door as our feet are twice the proper size... Fort St Elmo and the National War Museum. Incredible the history that's happened right on this very spot. Fending off the Ottomans, the French, the Italians and Germans. Wow. Best thing about the War Museum was a 3 strand timeline that put Malta's history into context with the Ottoman Empire (or whoever was the 'foe of the moment') along with European and world history. So much had happened in Malta by the time Queen Victoria took the throne... we were exhausted just reading about it.
Everything Shuts : 5.00 pm and we were at the opposite end of the Valletta peninsula from the car. So instead of hiking up the hill and back along the spine of the city, we wended our way along the waterfront and saw the Siege Bell (to commemorate WWII), the lower Barrakka Gardens and watched the sunset over the Grand Harbour. We made it back to the Barraka Lift and happily (ecstatically?) paid €1 each to zoom up to the Upper Barraka Gardens in the space of a minute.
6.00 pm - Back to the car, going with the flow of peak hour traffic and home by 6.30 pm. Wine. Pasta. Bath. Bed. Sleep.

How'd the € go? Day 1 - Total cost of entry fees per person €73. Remember... 3 day pass cost €49 each person. We are making out like bandits. But still keen to know if sight-seeing has ever killed anyone.