La Dolce Vita Musicale!

February 2025

Mdina and Rabat

I was still hanging in Amy's mum's apartment in Valletta, Malta. I couldn't leave. I just couldn't. I was loving it too much.

One day I went to the beautiful twin towns of Mdina and Rabat, in the centre of the main island. Mdina is also known as Victoria.

You'd recognise the names. Mdina sounds like Medina, and there's a million of them in the Arab world. The word simply means town or city in Arabic, and has come to mean the old part of Arabic cities, including the market places (or souqs). The Maltese Mdina is a beautiful historic old city, which these days has been impeccably preserved, is car free, and is a delight to explore.

Left: Getting the death stare on the local bus. I didn't notice you at the time, sorry mate.

Centre: Great venue for a wedding shop.

Right: The bridge leading to the old city of Mdina. This once crossed a moat. Not the horse, the bridge.

Stunning walkways and little quiet lanes everywhere.

Loads of beautiful churches too.

I eventually crossed the bridge out of the old city, and then started wandering around the nearby old (but not ancient) city of Rabat, which is tucked right up alongside it.

Left: At first I thought this related to rabbits, not Rabat, which is a coincidence because rabbit stew is the national dish of Malta, and one of the most famous of all its delicacies. It's often on the menus in restaurants here. I actually used to eat rabbit as a kid, it was pretty tasty actually.

Centre: Rabat is the site of the Catacomb of St Paul the Apostle, as well as the site for some other Christian VIPs' catacombs. This is the tomb of St Cataldus, who was Irish by birth, and whose great Christian antics are celebrated all over Malta (and in Italy).

Right: Well that proves it. Saints definitely go to heaven, because there were none at all down here.

Centre: Plaque from a Papal visit.

I eventually made it back home, and did normal things, like spread some of this smeerbaar on my sandwich.

I headed over to Sliema a couple of times, a more resorty and partyish area of Malta, and really, it's not that bad. Well, not as bad as some people said.

It's got newer apartment blocks and restaurants, but the coastline is still beautiful, it just doesn't have the old charm of Valletta.

Centre: Looking back at Valletta.

Right: A cruise ship tried to sneak past my window but I caught him.

Left: Wherever ever there's afternoon sun in Italy and Malta, there's cafés and Aperol Spritz.

Centre: Yeah, as if you really need three patties on your burger.

This turned out to be my last sunset from this window. At least for now anyway.

Left: The people were brave, so you award the cross to the island? Now that's random.

Centre: Tonight was a special night, by the way. Not only was it my last night in Malta, but it was the first time I've been to the movies in about 18 months. I've really missed it, I've gotta say.

There were 16 comfy lounge chairs in the tiny cinema, and only me and a lovely English couple in there to enjoy them.

And the movie?

"A Complete Unknown." The Bob Dylan biopic. It was amazing, especially the music.

Right: And the old recipe didn't contain sugar?

The moon filled up for my last night in Malta.

This has been my route through the Maltese islands.

Heading off to their next festival gig.

It was an amazing stay in this apartment here in Valletta. I'm so grateful to Amy to offer it to us. It's been a restful, culturally rich, and expansive time here.

Back To Sicilia

So, as the community fiesta ended, so did my own little personal one, and too-early the next morning I strolled off to the ferry terminal.

Below Left: The burning heart of Jesus farewelled me.

Below Centre: It was still dark, and the full moon was setting.

Below Right: The ship I boarded was built in Tasmania. So nice to see a map of Tassie, I haven't seen one in a while.

It was a relatively calm crossing, and it was super cold when I arrived, I'm not sure if that's because the Italian mainland was colder than Malta, or whether I was never up at that time of day in Malta.

I mean I was up when I caught the ferry, but I had a long walk with my pack on, which kept me pretty warm.

The policia had dogs sniffing around. They gifted me my own personal sniff as I walked past too.

I had a half hour walk to the bus stop, and then jumped on a bus to Catania, which, even though it's sort of in the wrong direction, is the far easier way to get to Palermo, the Sicilian capital, which is my next exciting destination.

This was my route to Palermo

Right: Pozzallo Beach looked beautiful. It was dark last time I was here.

There were some absolutely beautiful views on the way to Catania.

Below: Catania is dwarfed by the active volcano Mt Etna, a beautiful snow covered mountain whose tip was covered in cloud all day. By chance I happened across a pic of Mt Etna taken a few days ago, lava was spewing from its top into the steaming snow.

People have been going up there to take pics, which has had police and other service provision agencies fuming, as it's dangerous.

Below Left: There's actually a bike lane in Catania. So advanced! And not a single cyclist on it, of course.

I only had an hour or so before my bus to Palermo departed, so I decided to hot foot it to the old part of the city, to see as much as I could.

Catania, a city of about 300,000, was the capital of Sicily for centuries, and is still the second major city in the province. It's an economic and transport hub, and has some beautiful UNESCO listed baroque architecture, and a famous fish market. I only had a short time to explore it.

Miró gets around

The scenery on the trip was amazing! Sicily is absolutely stunning at this time of year, the hills and mountains cloaked in the most delicious green, citrus trees fruiting everywhere, and the whole place looking like God's gift to the mafia.

Speaking of the mafia, there was a massive arrest of 180 suspected mafia dudes yesterday in Palermo. All at once. Not sure how they managed to keep that quiet, given the network of informants within the police force.

But since the 1980s, which was the heyday of the Sicilian mob, known as the Cosa Nostra, a period when they carried out very public assassinations of judges who were presiding over the trials of various mafia figures, the police now seem to be getting the upper hand. Over the Sicilian mafia at least.

The massive 'Ndrangheta mob from the southernmost region of the Italian mainland, Calabria, however, is still wielding enormous power over the local Sicilian population, running drug, prostitution and protection rackets everywhere. Local businesses and individuals basically need to pay in order to not get beaten up, a fee they called pizzo.

Such a great idea. Why beat people up when you can just get them to come to you with money every week? So much easier.

Unconscionable innit.

Let alone the sex and drug trafficking, and money laundering.

Anyway, as I was heading to Palermo I silently wondered if there'd be any reprisal attacks against the police while I was there.

It was actually super nice, because they were doing some repairs on the freeway and we took some glorious back roads. I love that. The sort of roads you'd cycle on.

The small town of Enna.

We eventually hit the north coast of Sicily, and the views were also beautiful, and then finally arrived in Palermo, the capital.

Palermo

It was getting dark as I strolled through the district around the bus station, which to be honest felt a little dodgy, with under-lit streets and loads of guys in groups, just hanging around.

But it wasn't dodgy dodgy. It wasn't quite late enough for that.

Eventually I hit Via Maqueda, a long area pedonale (pedestrian zone) that runs north-south, parallel with the coast, and for long stretches is lined with cool cafés, shops, bars and restaurants.

It was a beautiful introduction to Palermo, and so was meeting Emanuela (Manu), one of the super friendly hostel receptionists, who told us about a jam happening later that night, and a community dancing event after that.

The hostel I stayed at is one of my all time best. It's called A Casa Di Amici, “at a friend’s house,” and it totally is. It was set up by Santo, a really amazing percussionist, who also makes hand drums. There's a huge hangout room in the hostel filled with instruments, all ready for proper jamming.

Argentinian Sol and Scottish Siobhan and I went to a little restaurant, and it was already pumping with traditional Sicilian music when we got there.

Below: Strolling to the jam, through many dark and narrow streets. As beautiful as some of these places are, Manu at reception told us that later on we needed to walk back along the busier main roads, as it's too dodgy here.

The restaurant was awesome. It was Sol's first night in Europe in her whole life, and she, like all of us, was really happy to have this completely authentic introduction to Palermo.

We all joined in on percussion, of course.

I met a whole bunch of beautiful people there, including some amazing local musicians, a number of whom came to the hostel to do a gig the following night.

Sol took the vid

I was in music and people heaven. The Goddesses really lay it on sometimes.

By midnight we were ready to go to Piazza Bellini, where the dancing was going on. It was beautiful. Loads of young people doing all sorts of dances from different countries, some of which we were invited in to learn.

It was such a fantastic night.

Welcome to Palermo!

Exploring

The next day I had brekky with Sol, as we were the late risers, both having had long journeys to get here. But my trip from Malta had been nothing compared to hers. She left her family's village near Cordoba in Argentina on Monday, and didn't get to Palermo till yesterday, Thursday. What a marathon.

I really like Sol. She's a filmmaker living in Cordoba, who's in Sicily for three months, to satisfy one of the legal requirements to obtain her Italian passport (her grandmother's Italian). A European passport will completely open up a lot of doors for her, as it's tough in Argentina at the moment, and she despises the new President and right wing fanatic Javier Millei, who's basically a pumped up younger version of our good friend The Donald.

She told me she cried her eyes out when he was elected, as did many of her friends. And many of us in other countries also grieved, in solidarity.

Sol's only 24, but has managed to do so many things already in her life, including living and working in Mexico for 18 months, travelling to loads of places, and completing 3 years of a five year filmmaking degree.

She was heading off to a town in central Sicily today, a good place to organise her new passport apparently, so I walked with her to the bus station, portering a suitcase for her. She's paid to lease a room for three months, and has told me since that she's really happy with the town and her shared house. I'm happy for her.

I also had things to do. I sorted out my hard drive at a computer shop, it finally works, I posted off Claudi's lost-and-then-found phone, and I sent Amy's Malta apartment keys to her son in Germany.

I also tried to pick up some Tunisian dinar too, but no luck on that front. Everyone had run out.

I have told you I'm going to Tunisia haven't I?

I spent a lovely afternoon wandering around Palermo. It's so beautiful.

Below: The view from my dorm window.

Notice the carabinieri, with the red stripe on their trousers. They're everywhere, as are the polizia. The carabinieri are sort of military personnel, but function as a civil police force, for riots, public safety, rescues etc. They also patrol the highways and have jurisdiction in the rural areas. But they're also military police.

The polizia, on the other hand, usually operate within the confines of an urbanised area or city.

The amazing Teatro Massimo, built in the late 1800s.

There's some great laneways in the city, with random market stalls.

Lots of people ride motorbikes and e-scooters, and they all drive like maniacs, as do the car drivers. Well, not all of them, but many. You really have to watch out as you walk around.

And good luck with the pedestrian crossings, because many drivers don't appear to give a shit as to whether or not you're waiting to get across, are already halfway across, or are nearly off the road. They'll try and squeeze past you at swerving rocket speeds regardless.

Below: Lunch in a cheap diner. A delicious spinach and cheese roll, and a sweet pastry that I thought was full of sultanas - until I discovered it was actually choc chips. Mmmmm.

Above Right: The No Mafia project, an exhibition which pays tribute to the victims of organised crime, and to the achievements of the antimafia movement. It seeks to educate people about the possibilities for societal change in this historically mob-dominated region.

Palermo Cathedrale. The scale of this building is phenomenal, it's absolutely magnificent.

But it's surprisingly simple inside. Well, in relation to many churches I've been in lately, especially those in Roma.

I mean, there's loads of incredible art everywhere, that goes without saying, it's just that not every square centimetre of wall, ceiling, floor or pillar space is decorated with elaborate artwork, like in some other churches in Italy.

Below, Centre: This altar is a memorial to Giuseppe Puglisi, a Catholic priest who set up community services in the early 1990s for kids in towns that were completely controlled by the mafia, to provide them with alternative options to mafia employment or exploitation.

Yeah, the mafia didn't like that did they. So they assassinated him. But they were so nice about it, because they chose his birthday as the day to murder him. He was 56. Not sure whether or not a piece of his birthday cake was his last meal or not.

People are so fucked up aren't they. Imagine the guys making the decision to kill him on his birthday, as a fuck you! message to everyone.

You can imagine the fear and loathing those sort of acts instills in regular people.

Mother Mary comes to me

Back in the burbs

Centre: Oysters packed for sale in jewellery boxes (that look like they fell off the back of a truck).

Roman, Hebrew and Arabic script

Historically Speaking

Palermo, and Sicily, of course, has a huge history, and has been colonised by a succession of different empires, just like any other European region. Originally colonised by the Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthagians, Romans and Byzantines, it was then colonised by the Aghlabids, a Muslim kingdom.

The Aghlabids were very tolerant, and allowed the locals to continue their own religious practices, including a large population of Jews. During this period the Kingdom of Sicily flourished, with Palermo as its capital, and after a couple of centuries it eventually came under the rule of the Normans, who completely restored Christianity. Palermo was the largest city in the world during the 1100s.

In the late 1100s the city became part of the Swabian Kingdom, and later became controlled by the French, who moved their kingdom's capital to Naples, leading to a downturn in Palermo's economic fortunes.

The Aragonese took over next, then the Bourbons, until finally Sicily became part of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861. Palermo remained untouched during most of World War II, but then in 1943 the city was bombed heavily by Allied forces, and many buildings were destroyed.

Very Arabesque building, now a church. It was built in the Norman times.

Before dark I thought I'd better stroll to the harbour to check out my ferry check-in office location for my morning ferry to Tunisia, as there was no info anywhere online.

I'm really glad I did, because it was way down one end of the harbour, quite a long walk, and there wasn't a single sign for it anywhere.

It was dark by the time I got home, and I chilled for a bit before waiting for Martina and Sofia's gig at the hostel.

I met Martina last night, she was playing at the restaurant, and is an amazing musician from Milano, who's here on tour with another band. She's actually a sax player and flutist, but played guitar and drums at the traditional Sicilian music jam last night.

We chatted for ages, she told me how her career has really blossomed after finishing her music studies, and how she's now involved in loads of cool music projects in Milano and elsewhere. She tours Europe with bands now, I'd love to see her perform again, and hope to visit her when I come back to Italy later this year.

Sofia is an amazing vocalist who's learnt fluent Portuguese, and sings just like Elis Regina, one of the most famous female Brazilian vocalists of all time. We chatted after the gig too, she's heading to Brazil for the first time in April, and plans to make a career for herself there as a singer.

I was blown away by the gig. Martina's guitar playing was amazing, particularly as it's not even her main instrument. She was nailing some difficult Latin progressions and rhythms, it was such a pleasure for me to watch and listen. And Sofia's a beautiful singer by the way, she blew me away too, with her voice control, her subtleties, and her huge vocal skill set.

Both have a super bright musical future, I can feel it.

Oh yeah, and by the way, they let me come up and jam with them. I played an original Latin song of my own, in English, and then scraped through a Marisa Monte song, singing in my poor version of Portuguese. Luckily there was only one Portuguese speaker in the room, Sofia, and she was too kind to tell me the truth about how bad my pronunciation was.

And then later on it was a more open jam, and I got up again, we played till midnight, and then chatted till the early hours, which is the thing I usually do when I have to get up early in the morning.

I love the little girl sneaking past.

The Italians who came here for the gig stayed on, as well as Scottish Siobhan and Alex, who's from Basel in Switzerland. We chatted together for awhile, and then I found myself next to Eva, another woman from Milano. We connected really closely straight away, as she was so super honest about things that have been happening in her life.

It was one of those really special situations when two people are at the right place at the right time.

Eva really needed someone to tell her how beautiful she is as a person, and it was so perfect that I was there to deliver that message.

Because of course it's true.

We both felt so grateful and appreciative of each other, and somehow, despite the fact that we'd only just met, it felt very deep, and blew us both away.

Ah life. Ah people. I can't get over the beauty of it all sometimes, and how incredible it feels to make these connections.

La Citta

Yeah, the city.

I've been in lots lately, of varying sizes, and each has been so unique.

Palermo is another Italian city steeped in ancient and modern history, and not all of it necessarily wholesome.

And it has a hugely rich culture, which has been so easy for me to tap into.

And now?

Well ... I'm going to Africa!

Yes, right across the Straits of Sicily is the northern African country of Tunisia, which has beckoned me for ages.

And I'm about to finally succumb to the temptation.

Tomorrow morning in fact❤️

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