The sound which will always be Malta for me is the sound of bells.

One the day I arrived I was rather jet-lagged after flying from Australia and as I had decided to get straight into the local time-zone I was trying to keep awake until after dinner so that I would get to sleep at a normal Maltese bedtime. That was when I discovered that the three-point plug on the radiator in my room had been irreparably broken. There was a time every evening when my room turned very cold and with no way of heating it I formed the habit of putting on all my warmest clothes and getting into bed with a book until it was time for dinner.

I was cold and was under the covers on my bed, probably drifting off to sleep, when the bells started up. It was 5.15pm and it began with one bell which was very soon joined by others from every direction. There are many churches in Valletta and they all appeared to be ringing their bells at once. I felt as though I was totally surrounded by the sound of bells .

This is all I could see, from my window, of the little church on the waterfront below my hotel.

They were not quite synchronised and they were not the same pitch and they continued for about 30 minutes. The next night the same thing happened except that they started a little earlier and continued for rather longer. Every evening for about six days the same thing happened and then it stopped. I don't know why and can only assume that the continuous ringing over several evenings was something to do with the EU celebrations.

The Church of St Publius in Floriana with the bus station in the foreground, viewed from St John's Bastion.

Originally the church bells were rung on the quarter hour to let people know what time of day it was but nowdays most people own watches and this is no longer necessary. I understand that they were once rung on the quarter throughout the night but I was only once woken up by the sound of a bell. I am not sure if it was a prank, an accident or done for a reason but it didn't last for more than a few chimes.

I missed them when they no longer rang every evening; I found them charming.