Cities and Towns
Ambling around Malta’s UNESCO-listed capital at your own pace, taking in the historic sights within the impressive bastions of the Old Town, in an absolute joy. This charming walled city – established on a peninsula by the Knights of St John in the 1500s – is a packed with grand churches, palaces and museums, including St John’s Co-Cathedral –home to the only painting ever signed by Caravaggio, The Beheading of St John the Baptist. For more recent history, explore the Lascaris War Rooms with their subterranean tunnels and chambers that housed the World War II headquarters, now a fascinating museum.
We also recommend hopping aboard a five-minute ferry from Valletta to have a wander around 'the three cities' Vittoriosa, Senglea and Cospicua – the place to see authentic local life in action. Having provided a refuge for almost all the settlers who came to these islands, they were the first homes to the Knights of St John, so their palaces, churches, forts and bastions are even older than Valletta’s. Discover them by electric self-drive buggy (Rolling Geeks) which is a brilliant, fun way of navigating their narrow streets, with GPS and historic commentary.