By far the biggest occasion during April was the two day visit by Pope Benedict XVI to the island, an event that commemorated an unfortunate event that happened almost two thousand years ago. That was the time when St Paul's boat was shipwrecked on Malta while he was on a voyage to Rome. The Saint remained on Malta for 3 months and there are many locations around the island that exist due to this unfortunate accident. In Rabat there is St Paul's Grotto and Church that was built in the 17th Century. It is claimed that the grotto was also used by the Romans as a prison and it was also an air raid shelter during the 2nd World War.

The Pope arrived at Malta's International Airport at Luqa on the evening of 17th April before travelling into Valletta to visit the President of Malta in his Palace. From there the Pope travelled to Rabat to the Grotto, greeting the public along the way. During the rest of the visit the next day, the Pope visited Floriana, Kalkara and back to Valletta for a short concert before leaving the island on Sunday evening.

Another event coming up is the annual Firework festival that will see huge displays over the Grand Harbour in Valletta on the 29th and 30th April. This will be the 9th edition of this festival which sees local and foreign companies providing the displays, some of which are done to music. Malta has a long firework tradition that started when the Knights of St John came to the island and there are still numerous manufacturers with a base on Malta.

Finally, if you like your strawberries then there was a chance to get ahead of the rest of Britain at the Strawberry Festival in the village of Mgarr on 11th April. The climate in Malta allows strawberries to grow and ripen much earlier and the day long celebration included lots of freshly picked strawberries that could be sampled with all kinds of other local produce.