Malta is the smallest member of the EU, it is a proper pocket sized country right in the middle of the Mediterranean. The entire country covers just 122 square miles with a population of about half a million people. Greater London covers 607 square miles with a population of about 8.5 million people. Malta is about the same size as the Isle of Wight, tiny but incredibly packed with history.
It’s been occupied since Neolithic times and has megalithic monuments older than the Pyramids. Because its in the middle of the Mediterranean, every man and his dog has occupied it: Phoenicians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Normans, Swabians, Angevins, Neopolitans, Holy Romans, Knights of St John, The French and then us, The good old British Empire until 1964.
Everyone built something out of the beautiful limestone the island is made of. There are a huge number of megaliths, walls, castles, fortifications, batteries and massive stone keeps. All the many occupiers have left their mark on this tiny but resilient island.
If you enjoy history, like I do, the island is absolutely stuffed with it, so many historic sites rammed into a small island that also has a hot southern European climate where everyone speaks English! What’s to dislike?
In fact the state of Malta is an archipeligo of three islands, Malta, Gozo and even tinier Comino. The people of Malta speak a language which is an amalgam of archaic Arabic, Italian and English. It sounds Arabic sometimes but it also has the sing-song rhythm of Italian. It’s the only Semitic language to use the Latin Alphabet. The street and place names look Arabic, but often celebrate the names of long-dead British colonial administrators or admirals.
I really like it.
Tuesday 16 September 2025
We flew into Luqa, a former RAF airstrip but now a modern and sophisticated airport and got a taxi to our flat in Floriana. Floriana is a district just to the east of the capital Valletta which was created in the 17th century when another line of city walls was built to give more protection to Valetta.
It is also very conveniently is where the excellent bus station is, which is the best way to explore Malta. Car hire gives you more options I suppose, but the roads are quite rough in places and you can’t have a long boozy lunch can you?
To reach our flat we climbed 5 flights of stairs and 63 steps, then it was another flight between the bedroom and the kitchen. We had a tiny balcony and the sea was visible at Sliema in the distance. It didn’t have a great sea view, but it was only a 10 minutes walk into Valletta where most of the historic sites are.
We ate at the Blazunetta restaurant our first night, which was good Italian food. My minor gripe would be that the Fish Risotto was actually a Fish Paella, but it was tasty.
Wednesday 17 September
We walked through a linear park called The Mall into Valetta, which is a tiny capital of Malta covering a very modest 0.21 of a square mile. The “city” was built by the Knights of St John as a highly fortified settlement after the Great Siege in 1565 when the Ottoman Turks tried to conquer Malta. The Turks had a good crack at besieging the Knights, but didn’t succeed and the Knights built up the castles and walls to make it a lasting bastion of Christendom against Islam.
The Grand Master of the Knights was Jean de Valette, so the new capital was called Valetta.
Valletta and the surrounding towns are built around the two harbours, Marsamxett to the north, and Grand Harbour to the south. These are what made Malta such a desirable place.
It’s a grid of streets with a big gate at one end (designed by Renzo Piano) and a huge castle of St Elmo at the eastern tip. In the middle is the Co Cathedral of St John, a lavish Baroque overdone church full of pictures of suffering Jesus and saints getting murdered in imaginative ways.
The exterior has a relatively plain limestone face with twin towers, the interior is like a collision between a Faberge Egg, Trump Tower and an art gallery. Lavish doesn’t do it justice, It’s also very very popular, so the experience is a slow shuffle culminating in seeing the Caravaggio painting The Beheading of St John the Baptist. I prefer a nice landscape with a few naked nymphs to a beheading, it just doesn’t work for me.
The heart of Valletta is a very busy place, like Florence, Venice or Dubrovnik, but walk a few hundred yards to the eastern tip of the peninsula and it is much much quieter.
Overlooking the sea is the enormous St Elmo’s Fort, a massive stone fortification that guards the entrance to the Grand Harbour. It was besieged by the Turks in the Great Siege 1565 for 4 months, but ultimately fell to vastly superior forces. After the Turks gave up trying to capture the main fortifications of the Knights (it’s a very long story) they gave up and went home. St Elmo’s was enclosed in another fortress which has stood for almost 500 years.
The fort is very impressive in itself, giving amazing views of the Grand Harbour. It is also home to the National War Museum which is really good. It is housed in a series of rooms dedicated to different periods of Malta’s history, from 3,000 BC to accession to the EU in 2004.
What impressed me the most, was a case holding the George Cross medal given to Malta after the long bombing campaign by Italian and German aircraft in the War. Malta suffered over 3,000 air raids by Italian and German bombers, because British ships, submarines and aircraft stationed on Malta disrupted the Axis invasion of North Africa. Eventually it was the launching place for the invasion of Sicily.
On top of the castle were these control towers for the fast firing 6 pounder guns used to shoot Stuka dive bombers out of the air.
In the afternoon we took a boat trip around the Grand Harbour and all its arms that divide the urban area around Valletta into a series of peninsulas. The harbour is huge, and is the commercial heart of the city and a frequently a stopping place for the world’s biggest cruise ships. Our little tour boat followed the MSC World Europa, a floating city with almost 9,000 people aboard it. The tour was really good and helps you get a grip on the complicated geography of Valletta and the neighbouring Three Cities.
Close to where we are staying is a big open area called Independence Ground, and on it an enclosure and stage had been constructed for a concert. Who was on? Only Robbie Bloody Williams! We had finished eating some pasta on our balcony and we heard the opening chords of “Let me Entertain You”. So we dashed (carefully) down six flights of stairs and walked for 5 minutes to a square in front of Oratoju San Publju church, an area outside of the fence but where we could see the big screens and hear the band very well.
So for the next two hours we saw a free Robbie Williams concert,which was very good! My God that man has an enormous ego, and overshares on an epic scale. He didn’t really need to tell thousands of strangers about his mothers dementia, it felt like he was using his mothers illness to draw attention and sympathy to himself. But it was a fun concert.
Robbie was followed by an Italian DJ who we listened to from our balcony until 12.30, there was no chance to sleep.
Thursday 18 September
Malta only has two good beaches, Melleiha and Golden Bay. We walked to the bus station and took a 41 bus to Melleha.
The trip took over an hour with many stops in the Valletta suburbs, passing the spectacular Mosta Dome, a neoclassical church with a huge domed roof. All the churches in Malta are huge, they are very devout Catholics. The bus went through Melleiha village and then down a winding road to the beach, where there is a good stretch of white sand covered with umbrellas. It’s very modest compared to beaches in Spain or Italy, but it’s good for Malta where most swimming spots are just rocky ledges.
The sea was warm and rough, there was quite a breeze blowing. I tried a bit of snorkeling, but there was nothing to see apart from dead sea grass. There was a cafe about 10 metres away from where we reclined reading our Kindles. As usual I got a burnt chest and shoulders, the sun always seems to find a way to get through the parasol and get me.
In the evening we met some friends in Valetta and had dinner at Ortygia in Strait Street, a very long street that was popular with the Royal Navy and was known as ‘The Gut’. Some of the streets in Valetta were decorated with flags and hangings for the Independence Day celebrations on 21st September.
timharnesstravels 