February 27, 2019 – Balzan

We went back to Valletta today first to tour the Casa Rocca Piccola. It’s a 16th century palace and currently the home of the noble de Piro family. It was built in 1580 by one of the Knights of St John, Admiral Don Pierrot la Rocca. During WWII, or really before the war began but it was obvious it would happen, the then owner had the water cisterns drains in order to build bomb shelters for the family. Once war came, up to 300 people were able to use the shelters.

Library
Winter dining room
Summer dining room

Our tour guide was excellent and it was interesting to see rooms that included lots of personal effects, paintings and photos of the families that had lived and still live there.

We then walked to the War Rooms which Bob wanted to tour, Caroline and I did some window shopping while he did the tour. I bought a small piece of handmade Maltese lace which I plan to have framed. The shop had a lovely small piece of lace already framed but at at 200 euros, I decided against it.

After lunch, we walked to the terminal for the ferry from Valletta to Sliema and found that the regular ferry was out for maintenance so a Captain Morgan tour line boat was providing the service. It was quite a long wait as the tour boat is not as fast as the ferry so could not keep up the “every 15 minutes” schedule.

Had the most amazing dinner at a place recommended by our landlady, 10ish minute walk from out house.

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