Yesterday afternoon I was invited to a friend's house in Mdina. I have always wondered what it is like to live in a city with Mdina's history. Before the sun set, we decided to take a little walk around the adjacent village of Rabat. The word 'Rabat' stands for 'suburb' in Arabic. The village is preparing for its village feast, with festoons, lights and architectural wooden structures painted to look like marble and gold. I insisted on walking down the little alley that leads to St. Agatha's catacombs and my old school right next to them. I reminisced about the times my school friends and I were at liberty to run through the underground labyrinth and about the old man who took the tourists down to the catacombs. With his broken english he would explain how "St Agatha walked on these very steps". We'd giggle in the background and say "concrete" out loud as we pointed to the steps.
My friend took me to a building close to the bus station, with vaulted corridors set around a large courtyard full of orange and lemon trees. He explained to me the difference between monastery, convent and priory.
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