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Mediterranean Magic

20 Malta Highlights

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1 Wandering in Valletta

1 dating from 1566, malta’s capital is a remarkable city and a unesco

World heritage site. it’s the size of a small town – easy to explore on foot, and laid out in a harmonious grid formation. the tall, gracious houses are distinctive for their wood-and-glass balconies, which give them a top-heavy look. the hills mean some of the roads are so steep they have to be stepped, and the roller-coaster streetscape allows mesmerising views along the straight, narrow lanes and out to sea.

Dwejra

2 the thrilling coastline of dwejra, in Gozo, features some astoundingly

beautiful rock formations that have been sculpted by the wind and sea. From here you can take a boat trip through the azure Window, an arch of rock that forms a doorway to the open sea. there’s also the inland sea, which is a wonderful place to swim and snorkel when the sea is calm. close to the coast, the great chunk of Fungus rock rears from the piercing blue mediterranean.

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Fish lunch in Marsaxlokk

3 it gets busy every sunday at the small coastal town of marsaxlokk.

locals and tourists throng to visit the buzzing fish market, where you can buy all manner of sea bounty, from rock fish to baby sharks. the harbour bobs with colourful fishing boats painted with the eye of osiris – a tradition that’s thought to hark back to the Phoenician era. the sea-front, lined with excellent fish restaurants, is a great place for a long, lazy lunch – a favourite activity of locals as well as visi-tors.

Mdina

4 malta’s tiny ex-capital is a walled city perched on a hilltop, filled with

beautiful honey-coloured buildings. the views from its bastions are sensational, sweeping across the island and out to sea. a treasure trove of museums, artefacts and churches (including malta’s other cathedral), mdina is also appealingly mys-terious at night, when everything’s closed and the city is dimly lit and empty. Wander around after most people have left and you’ll understand why it’s known as the ‘silent city’.

Ħaġar Qim & Mnajdra Temples

5 a unesco World heritage site, these

structures date from 3200 Bc and are among malta’s finest and most atmospheric, partly due to their breathtaking location – they are set high up on the edge of coastal cliffs that are carpeted by wild flow-ers in spring. there are magnificent views out to sea and over to the distant islet of Filfla, and marked nature trails around the surrounding countryside.

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Vittoriosa’s backstreets

6 vittoriosa – known locally as Birgu, its name before the Great siege

of 1565 – is the most fascinating of the three cities. this small town, perched on its small lip of land, has stunning views all around it and perfectly preserved ancient streets within. it was the original home of the Knights of st John, but it’s no mu-seum – this is a living, breathing city with a strong sense of community. you’re in luck if you’ve timed your visit to see Birgu by candlelight in october, when the streets are lit by candles.

Comino

7 this small, rocky island has a beauti-ful coastline and an eclectic history,

having served as a hermit’s hideaway and a prison camp. it was written of by Ptol-emy, and today it attracts huge numbers of visitors to its Blue lagoon. this serene sea pool is so blue that it looks like an over-saturated image – if you manage to see it without the crowds (try an early morning swim), it’s breathtaking. comino is an equally beautiful place to walk, with easy paths around the island leading up to the 17th-century watchtower and around the coast to the island’s sole hotel.

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Hal Saflieni Hypogeum

8 visiting these an-cient underground

burial chambers is a unique, mysterious and awe- inspiring experience. amazingly preserved, the sacred spaces hollowed out from the rock are around 5000 years old, yet painted ochre patterns are still visible, decorating the ceilings of some sections. this unesco World heri-tage site offers a window into a mysterious ancient world, which leaves a beguiling and perplexing resonance. you’ll need to book several weeks ahead.

Diving & snorkelling

9 malta and Gozo have some of the best div-

ing and snorkelling sites in the world, with underwater caves, cliffs, coral reefs, shipwrecks and plane wrecks colonised by glim-mering shoals of fish. the islands are a wonderfully accessible place to explore the undersea scene, with lots of fine diving schools catering to learners as well as experienced divers.

Victoria

10 the il-Kastell of victoria is an

evocative place to wander – this tiny medina (walled city) almost seems to grow out of its rocky outcrop. it was built after a particular-ly devastating raid on the island, when almost every Gozitan was carried off to slavery; there was a time when the entire population of around 3000 used to sleep here at night. sweep-ing views can be had from its battlements.

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Swimming at San Blas Bay

11 Gozo has some strikingly pretty beaches along its northeastern

coast, with the rich, red sands of the most well known, ramla Bay, attracting crowds in the summer months. For a more seclu-ded swim, locals and savvy visitors head to san Blas Bay, a little further east along the coast. the beach has a very steep ap-proach, which puts off the faint-hearted, rendering it far less busy and giving it the sense of a well-kept secret. there are few greater treats than a picnic lunch here on a warm, sunny day.

St John’s Co-Cathedral

12 the austere exterior of valletta’s cathedral is no preparation for the

frenzy of baroque gold and lavish deco-ration in its interior. the floor alone is a carpet of many-coloured marble tombs, in which symbolic pictures are delicately rendered in stone. the chapels, each per-taining to an auberge, vie to outdo each other in opulence. the outstanding high-light is caravaggio’s Beheading of John the Baptist in the oratory – the largest work produced by the artist and the only one he is known to have signed.

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Religious & traditional celebrations

15 catholicism runs deep in malta.

this is a land that’s pep-pered with churches, and shrines on every street corner. easter and christ-mas are extraordinary times to visit, but there’s always a town festival somewhere, as well as other major celebrations, such as carnival. reli-gious events are celebrat-ed with great splendour, when communities join to parade holy icons in vivid processions. everyone is involved, from young to old; the most elderly spectators being wheeled out of their houses to watch. such festivities not only provide a mov-ing, fantastic spectacle, but also an unforgettable insight into maltese life.

Fine dining in St Julian’s

13 st Julian’s, set around a glorious scoop of bay, is one of malta’s culi-

nary and nightlife centres. it’s sandwiched between the areas of Paceville, which at-tracts a younger party crowd (if you’re 25, you’re old), and graceful sliema, one of the island’s most elegant districts. st Julian’s is packed with restaurants, and is loved by locals and visitors alike. a meal here could see you dining on 30-day aged beef at a hidden-away italian restaurant, enjoying asian fusion and a view out across the glittering lights of the bay or tucking into gourmet hamburgers with names like ‘the obama’.

Walking on Gozo

14 malta’s diminutive neighbouring island has a rolling, rural feel, and

is covered in a carpet of wild flowers in spring. it’s dotted by villages and huge churches, and has a topography of at-tractive hills, towering cliffs and dramatic coastal rock formations. you can glimpse the azure mediterranean from almost everywhere. the roads are quiet and the landscape is criss-crossed by walking trails, making it a fantastic place to ram-ble. such is the size of the island (around 14km long), that you could almost cover its entirety in just a few days.

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Eating Maltese cuisine with the locals

16 signature maltese food includes some of the world’s best bread –

ftira – often filled with a tantalising mix of tuna, tomatoes, olives and pickles. Pastizzi are small filo pastry parcels wrapping mor-sels of ricotta or mushy peas: the quintes-sential maltese snack. in restaurants you can sample more substantial local fare, such as rabbit stewed in red wine, stuffed octopus, or snail ragout, downed with a maltese cisk beer or non-alcoholic Kinnie. local recipes merge influences from italian to turkish, and to try them in a buzzing lo-cal restaurant is a delicious way to experi-ence a slice of maltese life.

Fomm ir-Riħ Bay

17 in some parts of malta the towns seem to almost ebb into each

other, such is the small size of the island. however, there is a surprising number of wild places around the country where you can veer off the beaten track, escape the crowds, and feel as if you’ve stumbled on a local secret. one such secret is the bay of Fomm ir-riħ, a stretch of coast edged by white sand and backed by cliffs and farmland. it can be reached by boat, or by road and then foot along a narrow coastal path.

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Valletta’s old-new opera house

20 valletta has re-cently seen a flurry

of architectural develop-ment, unmatched since the city’s conception in the 16th century, and with its new renzo Piano-designed parlia-ment building and city Gate, the capital has a gleaming 21st-century face. the other cornerstone of the devel-opment is a new outdoor theatre, built upon the ruins of the city’s 19th-century op-era house (it was bombed in 1942). it’s a thoroughly new, completely extraordinary experience to see a perform-ance in this controversial amphitheatre, set amid the remains of the opera house, which have been preserved as a reminder of malta’s tumultuous history.

Dingli Cliffs

18 malta’s breathtaking 220m-high dingli cliffs are a thrillingly ex-

posed place to walk, with wide, open views out to sea. ambling south along the cliff-top potholed track, you’ll reach mal-ta’s highest point, ta’Żuta. around here is prime territory for hiking, paragliding and rockclimbing. also topping the cliffs is the homely Bobbyland restaurant, housed in a former nissen hut (a structure used for storage during wartime), where you can feast on traditional maltese cuisine along-side local families and watch paragliders float past.

Boat trips

19 one of malta’s greatest pleasures is to glide or speed across the

azure mediterranean sea surrounding the islands. you’ll get the most breathtaking views of malta’s amazing coastal struc-tures by boat – the spectacular caverns of the Blue Grotto and the extraordinary for-mations at dwejra on Gozo. trips around Gozo and comino offer views of stunning natural beauty, the latter including the clear, iridescent Blue lagoon. or, for a taste of everything, round-island trips take in thrilling, sea-sculpted cliffs, mysterious coves and glittering seaside towns.

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