Official languages: Maltese, English
Capital: Valletta
Currency: Euro
Population as % of total EU: 0.08
Joined EU: 2004

Did you know?

• Maltese is a Semitic language, and the only one written in Latin script. It only became one of Malta’s official languages (alongside English) in 1934.
• There are around 365 churches in Malta – one for each day of the year. Unsurprising, then, that over 95% of the country’s population identifies as Christian.
• The British ruled Malta from 1814 to 1964, and British visitors to Malta might be surprised by how many everyday reminders of this remain. Amongst others, you’ll find British-style plug sockets, post-boxes and telephone boxes, and vehicles driving on the left-hand side of the road.
• Malta is home to the oldest free-standing stone structures in the world: the Megalithic Temples. Older than the pyramids of Egypt, the temples are UNESCO World Heritage sites (as is the country’s capital, Valletta).
• There are no forests, mountains or rivers in Malta. There are also no trains.

Visiting Malta: stunning scenery on a whistle-stop tour

Conscious of time ticking down on the Brexit clock, at the beginning of this year I was on the hunt for my next EU destination. Malta stood out as the obvious choice: an old friend was living there, there were good flights from my closest airport and it advertised over 3,000 hours of sunshine a year.

Despite having over a month to prepare, my planning was thin on the ground. This was my first solo trip in quite some time, but I booked hotels at the last minute, hadn’t looked into how to get from one place to another and had absolutely no idea what I would be doing for four days. Add that to gale-force winds, an apocalyptic storm and a lot of time on my least favourite form of transport (the bus), and it’s perhaps surprising that I absolutely loved my time there.

This is, at least in part, due to the fact that Malta is simply stunning. A mix of the (very) old and the new, it is steeped in history and oozes charm. The architecture – from limestone grandeur to fortified towns to Renzo Piano’s modern additions to Valletta – delights, and there are as many gems to be found wandering aimlessly into side streets as there are to make dedicated day trips to.

On Malta’s main island, I chose to base myself in Valletta. I also spent a night on the smaller, wilder island of Gozo – an unmissable addition to any itinerary of more than a couple of days.

Sadly, I didn’t get to sample much traditional Maltese cuisine. However, I would recommend squeezing in two pastry-based gems: pastizzi and imqaret. The former is a flaky pastry parcel filled with either ricotta or mushy peas (both delicious) and the latter is a deep-fried date-filled number.

Eating and drinking in Valletta

Valletta is small but perfectly formed. At the tip of a peninsula, it measures just 1km by 600m (slightly smaller than the Pentagon), making it easy to orient yourself and feel at home. The bulk of my time there was spent wandering around the city: marvelling at the traditional Maltese balconies (galerija); gazing out to sea and admiring its iconic architecture, including the City Gate and new Parliament building. I would recommend any new visitor to Valletta to spend at least a day doing the same – and also to give the wonderful establishments listed below a go.

• Lot Sixty One: a delightful little coffee shop, perfect for a caffeine hit before a busy day. The chocolate croissants are delicious too.
• Piadina Caffe: a cheap and cheerful spot for breakfast or lunch. Go for simple, tasty food and a great atmosphere.
• 67 Kapitali: an immensely popular café-cum-craft beer bar with tasty pizzas and salads. Arrive early to get a seat.
• Wild Honey: beer and pizza served in a small bar with old record covers on the walls and lots of character. The staff are lovely too.
• Yard 32: gin and tapas bar with occasional outdoor live music. The bar itself is in part made of a tank filled with some rather mesmerising fish.
• Café Society: a stylish yet down to earth bar that hosts DJs and projects old films onto its whitewashed walls. The cocktails are strong but delicious.

Film in Valletta
I hadn’t been planning to make cinema a large part of my time in Malta, but the local offerings were just too good to ignore. Absolutely top of the list, and one of my favourite things in Valletta, is City Lights, a cinema bar in what was once the only erotic cinema in Malta. With a thoroughly independent vibe, two screens and old film reels and posters (erotic and not) adorning the walls, I could have come here for every night of my stay. Best of all? It’s €5 for the film, a drink and popcorn.

Also worth a mention is the St James’ Cavalier Centre for Creativity. Set in a renovated 16^th century fort, it has exhibition space, event spaces and a theatre, as well as an arthouse cinema. My visit happened to coincide with a documentary-focussed precursor to the Valletta Film Festival, and I was able to catch Kim Longinotto’s Shooting the Mafia.

The Three Cities
A perfect day or afternoon trip from Valletta is a visit to the Three Cities. They’re accessed by ferry from Valletta Waterfront, and the journey takes less than 10 minutes (a bus is available too, but it takes longer).  The cities are called Vittoriosa (formerly Birgu), Senglea (formerly L’Isla) and Cospicua (formerly Bormla), and you can easily walk from one to another (they’re all very small).  Vittoriosa and Senglea are on two peninsulas that face Valletta, and Cospicua sits just behind them.

My primary interest in Senglea was its watchtower (vedette), perched right at the tip of the peninsula in a small park. I think it’s one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen, and I will not hear otherwise. Can I have one on my house?

Vittoriosa is a joy to wander around. Full of narrow roads adorned with plants and flowers, walking here is like crossing into a fairytale.

Mdina and Rabat
A short bus ride from Valletta is Mdina, a walled hilltop city that offers a glance into Malta’s past. Pretty and a world apart from anywhere else I visited in Malta, Mdina is a great place to while away a couple of hours. A word of warning though: it was also the most touristy place I visited, with large tour groups on every corner and tourist-bearing horse and carts in the side streets.

Just over the road from Mdina is Rabat, which is also a nice place for a stroll. And, if you’re after some food, Rabat is probably your best bet: try the legendary pastizzi at Crystal Palace (Triq San Pawl) or sample some local delicacies at Ta’ Doni.

Gozo
Gozo is one third of the size of Malta’s main island and has less than one tenth of its population. It’s reached by ferry from Ċirkewwa (on Malta’s northern coast), about an hour and a half by bus from Valletta. The ferry itself takes about 20 minutes and arrives into Mġarr, from which you can get another bus to the island’s main city Victoria (another 10 minutes), from which there are bus connections to most towns on the island. Don’t let this excess of buses put you off though – they’re surprisingly easy to navigate and it is well worth the effort!

While in Gozo, I stayed in Żebbuġ, a small village on one of Gozo’s highest points. Aside from offering the relaxed pace and local experience I was after, it is also perfectly placed for walks along Gozo’s breath-taking northern coast. The walk from Żebbuġ to the narrow creek of Wied il-Għasri, along the salt pans to Marsalforn will stay in my memory for a long time, and was probably the best thing I did while in Malta.

I imagine these places become extremely busy in summer but, due to the high winds and impending storm that coincided with my visit, I pretty much had them to myself. It was magical.

I wish I’d explored more of Gozo, but I was short on time and hampered by the weather. I used my one night on the island to visit Victoria’s Ċittadella, an ancient fortified city that sits on top of a small hill. Home to a number of museums and a very small number of inhabitants, it can be visited at any time of day but is obviously more popular in the daytime. I had it entirely to myself, which was both spectacular and eerie.

This was a great trip and it was with a heavy heart that I set off back home, painfully aware that this might be my last trip to an EU country while the UK was still one too. Poignant, then, that on my last day I stumbled across this sign: