Hi all, as some of you may or may not know we have been in Italy for the last 8 days staying in Pisa, but the main thing that struck me whilst we were away was the vastness of places like Florence, Livorno, Viareggio and even Lucca etc, in Malta you simply jump on a bus and arrive either in or very close to where you want to get to, in Italy it is a hike to the train station and then back again when it is time to go back to your accomodation, another thing is the huge amounts of beggars, street hawkers, and tourists of all nationalities all over the place, I have to say that certain places can be quite intimidating especially in places like Florence where you can be constantly harrased in the streets to buy tat or give to beggars, thank god Malta isn't like that, we have always felt safe there, the people are warm and friendly and you can have a bit of a laugh with them wherebye the Tuscans we met in general were quite unfriendly bit stand offish and take themselves very seriously, don't get me wrong it was a good experience we do like Italy it was our second visit to the country (last time was Sorrento which was fab) and we saw some good things this time, but there is no where quite like magical Malta, and in my opinion cassical Maltese architecture and culture far surpasses that of there so called more cultured Italian neighbours, give me Valletta, Sliema, Mdina, Marsaxlokk and Malta in general any time it's much more fun, roll on September and November.

Regards
Sliema2