Day 3: October 15

Mosta

In an effort to, again, get out of the city and see more of Malta, we chose the city’s Hop On/Hop Off tour bus. We always have mixed feelings about this type of sightseeing (you either love it or hate it), but in this case the Hop On/Hop Off bus took us entirely across Malta (which is not hard as it’s such a small island), so it was a great option.

The bus was quite slow moving and it took a while to get out of the city, but after about an hour we reached the city of Mosta, which is more or less in the centre of Malta:

Mosta is a small but densely populated city. The most prominent building in Mosta is the Rotunda, a large basilica built by its parishioners’ volunteer labour. It features the world’s third largest unsupported dome, and displays a replica of a German bombshell that famously crashed through the dome during World War II but did not detonate upon impact (spoiler alert: we experienced the dome but did not see the aforementioned German bombshell).

A Little Spin Around The Town

We hopped off the bus in Mosta as we were interested in visiting the Rotunda of Mosta; it is supposed to be one of the finest in the country. Prior to visiting the Basilica we took a walk around some of the Mosta streets:

Lunch Accompanied By A Rainstorm

We could tell by the rapidly darkening skies we were soon going to be deluged with heavy rain, so we took the opportunity to seek out a nearby restaurant and have lunch while waiting out the storm. We settled on a cozy little French-style restaurant called Manouche; the food there proved to be absolutely delicious. After lingering over our meal for well over an hour, the rain let up enough for us to pay our bill and proceed to the Rotunda of Mosta.

The Sanctuary Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady

Commonly known as the Rotunda of Mosta, this church was the main reason we hopped off the bus for a visit:

The church was built between 1833 and the 1860s to the neoclassical designs of Giorgio Grognet de Vassé, on the site of an earlier Renaissance church which had been built around 1614 to designs of Tommaso Dingli.

The design of the church is based on the Pantheon in Rome, has the third-largest unsupported dome in the world, and is Malta’s largest church. The church narrowly avoided destruction during World War II when on April 9, 1942 a German aerial bomb pierced the dome and fell into the church during Mass, but failed to explode.

We paid the entrance fee and entered – what a beautiful building…

The Bell Tower

The View From Above

Heading Back Down to the Ground Floor

Returning to Sliema In The Rain

It was getting to be late afternoon by this time so we thought we’d better get back on to the Hop On/Hop Off bus as it will take at least another hour and a half to get back to Sliema and our hotel.

As we made our way to the bus rendezvous area, the rain resumed its relentless pace. It was either the rain or the undependable Maltese bus service, but we had to wait nearly an hour for our overdue bus to appear. I was glad to see it make an appearance at last:

Back to Home Base

After enjoying another delicious Maltese meal that evening we walked along the Sliema seaside promenade. I was intrigued by this unusual sculpture so I got Vince to grab a shot:

This work is entitled White Shadows by Maltese architect Richard England, and was installed in 2002. The 9-foot tall, travertine marble sculpture features life-sized cut-outs of human figures, designed to evoke the families strolling along the waterfront. It is known for creating a play of light and shadow, with the name and concept possibly alluding to the idea that angels cast white shadows.

And so, back to the hotel for the evening.

End Of Day 3 in Malta!