Malta

Valletta (population 6,000, the smallest EU capital) is a Baroque city built by the Knights of St John on a peninsula between two deep harbours after the Great Siege of 1565. The Co-Cathedral of St John: the most densely decorated Baroque interior in the world, with Caravaggio’s The Beheading of St John the Baptist (his largest work and only signed painting) in the Oratory.

💡 Caravaggio lived in Malta in 1607–1608, fleeing a murder charge in Rome. He painted The Beheading of St John (3.6m × 5.2m) and became a Knight of St John before being expelled after another violent incident. The painting is extraordinary.

The Upper Barrakka Gardens: the finest view in Malta — the Grand Harbour below, with the Three Cities (Vittoriosa, Senglea, Cospicua) on the opposite headland, and the creaking traditional luzzu boats in the water. The National Museum of Archaeology for the Sleeping Lady (3,000 BCE terracotta figurine from the Hypogeum).

💡 The Grand Harbour noon cannon — fired daily from the Barrakka Gardens at noon — is a tradition that began under British rule and still rattles the windows of Valletta. Free, punctual, dramatically loud.

Mdina — the medieval walled city on the ridge above the plain — was the island’s capital for most of its history and is now permanently quiet, with a resident population of under 300. The Norman Palace, the cathedral, the bastions with views to Sicily on a clear day. The catacombs of St Paul and St Agatha beneath the suburb of Rabat.

💡 Mdina at dawn (before 9am) is entirely empty and extraordinarily atmospheric — the narrow limestone streets, the carved balconies and the absence of noise create something genuinely medieval. Return the following morning if you visit in the afternoon.

The Three Cities (Birgu, Senglea, Cospicua) on the south side of the Grand Harbour are where the Knights of St John held Malta against the Ottoman siege of 1565 — the greatest siege in Mediterranean history, 40,000 Ottoman troops against 700 Knights. The Maritime Museum in the former Knights’ bakery. The waterfront for seafood.

💡 The Great Siege of 1565 lasted from May to September. At the decisive moment, the Viceroy of Sicily sent a relief force that arrived as the Ottomans were withdrawing — 180 years before the event, a previous knight had predicted the siege and victory in an inscription still visible on the wall.

30-min ferry from Cirkewwa. Gozo is smaller, hillier and calmer than Malta — the Azure Window (collapsed 2017, tragically) was here, but the island’s character survived its most photographed landmark. The Ggantija temples (3,600 BCE, older than Stonehenge and the Pyramids, the oldest free-standing stone structures in the world). Victoria (Rabat) and the Citadel.

💡 The Ggīantija Temples (UNESCO World Heritage Site) were built between 3,600 and 2,500 BCE — they predate Stonehenge by a thousand years. The megaliths weigh up to 50 tonnes each, moved without wheels across the island.

Ramla Bay is Gozo’s finest beach — red sand (rare in the Mediterranean), clear water, backed by low hills. The Calypso Cave above the bay (Homer’s Odyssey identified Gozo as the island of Ogygia, where Calypso held Odysseus for seven years). Mgar fishing village for fresh fish at dusk.

💡 The view from the Calypso Cave over Ramla Bay is one of the finest in the Maltese islands — the red sand, the aquamarine water and the terraced fields are the landscape Homer may have been describing. Whether or not the identification is correct, it’s convincing.

30-min boat from Cirkewwa to Comino. The Blue Lagoon between Comino and the uninhabited Cominotto has water of a turquoise transparency that still surprises people who have seen photographs of it. Then ferry back to Malta and Luqa Airport (MLA) for departure.

💡 The Blue Lagoon is crowded from 10am–4pm in summer and blissfully empty before 8:30am. The first boat from Malta arrives around 9am — be on it.