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There is a great deal of poetry and fine sentiment in a chest of tea.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Palazzo Parisio, Naxxar, Malta - Sunday, 27th October 2013
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Tea Takers
Sarah Ryan
Paul Ryan
Olivia Ryan
Patricia Cassar Torregiani
Mary Cassar Torregiani
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Our friendship with Patricia is another that is rooted in Lourdes. We met on our pilgrimage after Patricia came to Oxford for postgraduate Law studies. It was lovely then, in more recent years, when Patricia brought Mary with her, and our daughters became friends too. It hasn't been possible for us all to meet there for the last few years, but we have been saying that we should get together for quite some time now. When I first began to plan a list of possible tea places, I rather tentatively put 'Malta?' but didn't really think it was a practical possibilities. Paul's new found enthusiasm for air travel, however, found him browsing flights in the summer and so a plan was hatched for an October half-term trip.
Then and now...
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Palazzo Parisio
Of course, the first thing I did, once the possibility of the visit became real, was to message Patricia and tell her to start thinking about tea locations. Her choice was very pleasing indeed. On the Sunday in the middle of our five day stay, Patricia and Mary took us to the Palazzo Parisio in the village of Naxxar.
Built in the 18th Century by one of the Grand Masters of the Knights, Antonio Manoel de Vilhena, it was bought from the Parisio family in the 19th Century by Marquis Guiseppe Scicluna, and remains still in the possession of the same family, who now run it as a restaurant and wedding venue. The elegance and opulence of its design has been maintained and developed, and it is a very stylish location.
We took tea in the garden - October in Malta is a very different experience to October in England - and enjoyed a peaceful and attractive setting (all the more pleasing and surprising given the bustle of the roads immediately outside the palazzo). Olivia and Mary took advantage of the freedom to roam from time to time, and Patricia, Paul and I relaxed over tea, beneath the canopies looking out over the fountains and low hedged sections of the garden.
The traditional afternoon tea was very satisfying, with good sandwiches (perhaps cut a little larger than some, but this is a very minor quibble). Olivia and I suffered our, now familiar, disappointment at the news there were only fruit scones, but as it turned out they contained so little fruit that we enjoyed them very much - and so, what others might mark as a failing became a considerable positive for us.
The range of cakes and pastries were good - I swiftly bagged the lemon meringue and was not let down. Brownies, Battenburg cake and the strawberry tart that Paul enjoyed, all contributed to a good palate of pleasingly varied colour and shape. Olivia and Mary opted for chocolate cake instead of the full tea (although this did not stop Olivia pilfering scones from her parents) and this was also very tasty and not too heavy, which is not an inconsiderable achievement.
In an interesting Mediterranean twist, tea was served in cafetiere-style glass affairs, whilst Paul's coffee came in what can only be described as a teapot.
It was a lovely tea and there was little left over...
Delightful company, good food and beautiful surroundings, rounded off by a fine evening stroll along Valletta's waterfront
Worth travelling 1700 miles for any day.
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Malta
Malta, with its smaller sisters Gozo and Comino, form an archipelago in the Mediterranean some 70 miles south of Sicily. Lying more southerly than some of the northern coasts of Africa, this is the furthest south any of the Ryans have been and will quite clearly be the southernmost tip of the odyssey (Interesting to note, given my tendency to bandy that noun about in this blog, it is often claimed that it was on Gozo that the nymph Calypso held Odysseus in her thrall for six years - we naturally took the opportunity to visit her cave whilst in the vicinity, and enjoyed the additional benefit of its proximate sandy beach).
The islands have a remarkable history, encompassing extraordinarily developed neolithic settlements, with vast and complex temple sites the earliest parts of which pre-date Stonehenge and the building of the Egyptian pyramids by over a millennium; playing host for three months to St Paul, who was shipwrecked here en route to Rome; dramatic and often violent attacks from different powers wishing to secure them; rule by the order of the Knights of St John (more commonly known as the Knights of Malta) who were an extraordinary and unusual power of early modern Europe; under the rule of Britain from the early19th century, they suffered bitterly under German and Italian attack in World War Two, famously the whole country being awarded the George Cross for their bravery under this attack and the pivotal role Malta played in the defence of the allied forces in the Mediterranean; and now, independent since the early 60s, as a recent member of the EU finding their own European voice. As such a history suggests there is a wealth of interesting and impressive sights to see.
Coming from a Britain where the Autumn was turning distinctly cold, it was an additional treat to be in warm sunshine (to wake in the night needing to switch on the air con, rather than the heating...), and to gaze day after day on the deep blue waters of the sea - as a child growing up on the northern verges of Europe I had always really felt that the whole idea of sea being blue was a romantic nonsense (we all know the sea is slate grey, after all) but here it is an entrancing reality.
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Twenty-Fifth Tea - Twenty-Fifth Year
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Ceremonial
A day of contrasting ceremonial experiences:
Morning - high mass at St John's Cathedral in Valletta - the usual 'full works' - Latin, polyphony, chant, incense, unusually high biretta quotient and exceptional use of two thuribles, in order to cense the consecration sconces with reasonable speed, it being a special feast to celebrate the Cathedral's consecration.
At midday a visit to two Neolithic temple sites at Hagar Qim and Mnajdra, where we tried to fathom the possible rituals of early man. (The hectoring tone of the audio guide, as it persisted in demanding that we come up with our own theories about the use of the buildings, seemed rather to undermine the painstaking work of generations of archaeologists and historians).
Ending the afternoon, then, at that most civilised of ceremonies - the rite of the tea table.
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