part.6 Another life

23.10.2015.
After a good rest and breakfast at around 10:00 we are ready for the next venture. Plan is a tour of Siracuse, Noto, Ragusa and Pozzallo where we catch a ferry to Malta. Once again we're going to Ortigia to film it during riding (around the city). After a short drive we enter the motorway under construction and go to Noto. We enter the city and drive through the narrow streets and stop in the center. Before our sightseeing we have a coffee in front of the cathedral. Noto in our opinion is one of the most beautiful cities in Sicily, if not the most, in one word, impressive. The beautiful buildings, churches, streets, everything .... While walking street musician is playing the tune from The Godfather movie to our delight. Inside the cathedral are the remains of a wooden planks, found after a shipwreck near with quote from Pope Francis "Who cries for these people". That impressed us very deep, and returned us to the harsh reality of our lives. After Noto we go in Ragusa. Ragusa is a special city for us because we come from Ragusa (historical name of Dubrovnik). We visit the old town of Ragusa Ibla, which is along the Noto and Modica (among other cities) also on the list of UNESCO world heritage sites as well as our Dubrovnik, but due some abandoned walls and facade it's not as imposing as Noto. In Ragusa we walk through the city center, and we go to restaurant Trattoria La Bettola, where we eat excellent food. After lunch, coffee on the Piazza Duomo and we try our first canolli on the road. We laze in the sun. We drove once more around Ragusa to film it like Syracuse. Final photographs and it's time to go. We drive to Pozzallo to leave the bike and catch the ferry to Malta. Weather is warm, sunny with scattered clouds, very nice. In Pozzallo we come much earlier and wait for the opening of the parking lot for our bike. We sit on the shore and enjoy. Before the trip we booked parking for bike while we are in Malta. In Malta trafic is on "opposite" side and prices for transport for bike are quite large, so it is not worth it because Malta is well connected with local bus lines, and not large (but with 400,000 inhabitants plus tourists). We even read that Malta was planning to change traffic rule to European way, but due to a possible invasion of a large number of tourists with vehicles they feared from total traffic chaos and finally gave up. We did not want to indulge in such an adventure although I think it would not be much of a problem. Bike is sleeping in Italy, because it is much easier. We left our bike and took our stuff and the first time we use backpacks (we bought another one in Ragusa), because we will need them in Malta. We walk up to Pozzallo to lose some time while waiting for the boat. With Pozzallo we are not overly impressed, not at all. Empty small (new) town that has a promenade and a large sandy beach, and is likely to get crowded with tourists during summer. We had a coffee and went back to the port.
Our ship is entering the port.
Jean de la Vallette is the fastest catamaran ship in the Mediterranean sea (we read that on board) and it takes him less than two hours to Malta which is 50 Nautical miles (or 90 km) away.Pretty fast for a boat that carries passengers and vehicles. The interior deck on a ship looks much like the tourist cruiser ships, shiny, clean and well equipped. You have the small sofas, plane seats, whichever you prefer, a glass front deck gives the impression of being in a spaceship (a joke, but similar). You have small bars and shops on it as well. After loading the last passengers and vehicles we are free to go. The ship starts to accelerate and is confirming the title for the speed. In front of us, tens of ships sailing in the dark, and in the moonlight you can see outlines of ships and navigation lights. The ship changes course, but very slowly until we pass by each other. After a while people are sleeping, and in the distance the you can see the lights from Malta. We are approaching Valletta. We look at illuminated stone walls from harbor, very impressive buildings built for defensive purposes during history. Line Valletta Pozzallo from Virtu Ferries leaves at 19:00 but because of bad weather that day we departed at 21:00 and arrived much later (huge waves on Malta). We exit the ship and take a taxi ride to the hotel located in Sliema, the neighboring town to Valletta. As the taxi drive us we see a lot of people, restaurants, bars and streets, all full. Unlike Sicily where there are not so many people, you feel like you're in London. We settle in the hotel and briefly go out for a quick orientation.
Here we had the worst accommodation on the entire trip.

route for the day

Noto

Noto street

Noto

Noto

Noto

Noto

Noto

Noto

Noto

Noto

Noto

Noto

Ragusa

Ragusa

Ragusa

Pozzallo harbor

Towards Malta

Pozzallo in the distance

San Giovanni

Jean de la Valletta

Inside boat



to be continued...