A Travel Blog
We toured Casa Rocca Piccola, a 16th century palazzo in Valletta that has been inhabited by a Maltese noble family for generations. We had a guided tour of the palazzo, including the WWII bomb shelters beneath, and were personally thanked on the way out by the current owner, the 9th Marquis de Piro.
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We didn’t visit many churches on this trip — Europe is stuffed with them, and no matter how impressive they are, they tend to blur together after a while. But we did visit St. John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta, partially lured by the famous Caravaggio painting hanging in its oratory.
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Now familiar with the Maltese bus system from our earlier visit to Mdina, we used it once again to head to the Valletta suburb of Paola. Months earlier, back home, I’d purchased tickets online for the Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum, an underground Neolithic structure that dates back over 5,000 years. While in Paola, we also visited the nearby Tarxien Temples.
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Hidden in a complex of tunnels deep beneath the Upper Barrakka Gardens are the Lascaris War Rooms. This once-secret facility was used as the command headquarters for the defense of Malta and the Allied invasion of Sicily during WWII. The complex is now being fully restored and we received a guided tour from a retired member of the RAF.
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We took a bus to the town of Mdina, located about 30 minutes from Valletta in the Northern Region of Malta. A picturesque fortified city on a hill, Mdina served as Malta’s capital until 1530. When government business moved elsewhere Mdina earned the nickname of “Silent City,” a description that remains accurate today.
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We’re staying in the heart of Valletta and it’s easy to walk to any point in the old city without too much exertion. Valletta holds the distinction of being both the smallest European capital (at 0.8 km2) and the southernmost European capital. The entire city has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1980 and historic treasures are crammed together more densely than anywhere we’ve visited.
We took the ferry across from Valletta to Vittoriosa, one of the Three Cities across the harbour. Locals still refer to the city as Birgu, its original name before the Great Seige of 1565 when the Ottomans attempted to invade Malta.
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When researching places to stay in Malta we came across Valletta Vintage. The renovated apartments they rent are beautifully styled and unique, but usually quite expensive. But in the off season — including January — the prices are more reasonable, in line with a slightly-above-average Airbnb. So we went ahead and booked their “Retro Pad” apartment.
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On our first full day in Valletta, we took a meandering walk along the southeastern shore of the Grand Harbour, starting around Fort St. Elmo and heading down to the Three Cities ferry docks.
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We hopped a short flight from Valencia, Spain to Valletta, Malta. Malta is a small archipelago of islands in the Mediterranean roughly 93 km south of Sicily and 300 km from Tunisia and Libya in North Africa. We’re staying in the capital city, Valletta which we will use as a base to take a few day trips to other parts of the islands.
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