Valletta charges you for driving in
Cameras have read plates into and out of the capital since 2007. Outside it, the colour of the bay decides whether you…
19 Jul 20262 minRead Valletta charges you for driving in
Valletta
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The best view in Valletta costs nothing
The Upper Barrakka Gardens look straight down into the Grand Harbour, and the gun below them fires twice a day.
18 Jul 20262 minRead The best view in Valletta costs nothing -
The harbour ferries beat the bus every time
Ten minutes from Sliema, five from the Three Cities, and the best view of Valletta comes free with the ticket.
8 Jul 20262 minRead The harbour ferries beat the bus every time -
The war rooms are cut into the rock under Valletta
The air defence of Malta was run from these tunnels, and so was the landing on Sicily in 1943.
21 Jun 20262 minRead The war rooms are cut into the rock under Valletta -
Valletta was built on an empty ridge in fifteen years
Drawn on paper in 1566 and built on bare rock, with a grid that ignores the hill and turns three streets into…
19 Jun 20262 minRead Valletta was built on an empty ridge in fifteen years -
The gun fires at noon and you can watch for free
The Saluting Battery still fires at midday and at four. From the gardens above it costs nothing.
18 Jun 20262 minRead The gun fires at noon and you can watch for free -
The Knights ran Malta for 268 years
The Order of St John arrived in 1530 and left in 1798. Valletta, the co-cathedral and the auberges all date from those…
13 Mar 20262 minRead The Knights ran Malta for 268 years -
Malta runs two carnivals in the same week
One is an official daytime parade in Valletta. The other is an after-dark tradition in Nadur, and they are not interchangeable.
21 Feb 20262 minRead Malta runs two carnivals in the same week -
The feast of St Paul’s Shipwreck is on 10 February
A public holiday, a procession through Valletta, and one of the very few large feasts that does not fall in summer.
12 Feb 20262 minRead The feast of St Paul’s Shipwreck is on 10 February -
The Great Siege of 1565, and the places you can still visit
An Ottoman fleet besieged Malta for four months in 1565. Most of the forts it was fought over are still standing.