A long weekend in Valletta

Adieu, ye joys of La Valette!

Adieu, sirocco, sun, and sweat!

Adieu, thou palace rarely enter'd!

Adieu, ye mansions where I've ventured!

Adieu, ye cursed streets of stairs!

(How surely he who mounts you swears!)

Lord Byron

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned I’d periodically review a European city I’ve visited based on a long weekend! This week, having had a hankering for some sunshine all week, and having heard about the most beautiful proposal that happened there quite recently. I’m going to talk about the beautiful, historic, Valletta.

Europe’s smallest capital, tucked behind towering bastion walls on a rocky peninsula flanked by sparkling Mediterranean waters, Valletta is an absolute joy to visit. Wander through its honey-glow, limestone streets beneath painted wooden balconies and baroque columns and curlicues. Discover panoramic views of the Grand Harbour, historic sights, trendy bars and a mouth-watering array of cafés and restaurants.

Built by the Knights of St John after they had nearly lost Malta to the Ottoman Turks in the Great Siege of 1565, Valletta started as an impregnable state-of-the-art citadel capital. As the knights’ tastes became more refined however, the austere elegance of this city was richly embellished, becoming the charming baroque crown it is today.

In the lead up to Valletta’s year as European Capital of Culture in 2018, extensive restoration and renovation secured the knights’ legacy — their fortifications, homes, workplaces and churches. And there was renewal too. Malta’s first purpose-built parliament, designed by Renzo Piano, the architect of the Shard in London, now dominates the entrance to the city, and modern fountains dance beneath the façade of the Grand Master’s Palace.

What to do

Entering Valletta at City Gate, pass the new parliament and the modern open-air theatre inside the Second World War ruins of Valletta’s Neoclassical Opera House to reach the top of Republic Street, Valletta’s spine. Turn right past the city’s oldest church, Our Lady of Victory, and the Auberge of Castille, fanciest of the knights’ headquarters (now the office of the prime minister). Your target is the arcaded Upper Barrakka Gardens. Perched 50m above the sea, this little park affords spectacular views of the expansive Grand Harbour and the Three Cities beyond. Hear the noon-day salute from the battery of cannons and maybe dip down into the tunnels below — the secret Second World War HQ of the Allies in the Med!

Make time to visit the state rooms of the Grand Master’s Palace and St John’s Co-Cathedral, arguably Europe’s most dazzling baroque interior (don’t miss the two Caravaggio paintings in its oratory). Stop by MUZA, the national art museum (in the home of the Italian Knights) and the Archaeological Museum (previously the Provencal Knights’ base). Here you’ll meet Malta’s five-millennia-old “Fat Ladies” and find other treasures from this nation’s unique Neolithic temples, which are older than Stonehenge! At the tip of the Valletta peninsula, visit the Knights Hospitallers (an architectural wonder in the 16th century). Fort St Elmo is a great spot for harbour panoramas, and you’ll also find the fascinating National War Museum here, spanning Malta’s 7,000-year history.

Where to stay

The accommodation options in Valletta have improved dramatically in recent years, from the art deco five-star Phoenicia — an historic site in itself — to self-contained apartments where you can live like a local. Alongside long-established guesthouses you’ll find brand-new designer boutique hotels. Many historical Valletta houses and small palazzi have been converted into tourist accommodation in recent years, with styles ranging from classic to quirky, and sizes from four rooms to 40.

In a city of less than one square kilometre, everywhere is in walking distance, and plenty of it is pedestrianised. If you’ve any mobility issues, you might want to check before you book that your accommodation can be reached by car and you aren’t on a steep street of steps (there are a few). Valletta is often navigated in relation to its limits — “City Gate” being the landward end close to the bus station, and “St Elmo” the sea-surrounded tip of the peninsula — and its flanking harbours. “Sea view” does not define the direction: the Grand Harbour and the historic Three Cities lie to the southeast; Marsamxett Harbour and more-modern Sliema to the northwest.

Food and drink

Valletta has bars and restaurants galore. Packed into this tiny city are several Michelin-starred restaurants, rooftop venues with panoramic views, shabby-chic bars spilling out onto limestone stairways (some with live music), specialists in Mediterranean and Maltese cooking, and perfect people-watching cafés on the narrow streets and squares.

The Victorian market on Merchants Street, cleverly converted into a contemporary food hall, offers a foodie’s Aladdin’s cave! From award-winning Maltese food to the island’s best chocolate ice cream, it’s a gift for groups with a range of tastes and anyone who likes to browse for their dinner.

Tiny Strait Street is the latest food and drink area. Known rather bluntly as “the Gut” when it served the sailors docked in the Grand Harbour, Valletta’s back alley is reinventing itself as a lively (but respectable) venue for trendy bars, restaurants and arts events.

Whether you are after fresh fish straight from the sea, Maltese or Italian pizza, a lamb dish to die for, a vegan salad, or an on-the-go pastizz (traditional savoury pasty), you’ll find it in Valletta. Along with all kinds of beer, wine (local and international), spirits and cocktails, which seem to taste all the better for being sipped beneath glowing limestone walls or overlooking the sparkling sea.

Don't miss!

If you have the time on your long weekend, a private boat trip of the Grand Harbour costs little more than the price of a couple of drinks. Take the Upper Barakka Lift from the Gardens down the bastion walls to sea level (grab a spot by the window). Cross the road to the Customs House wharf and hop into a dghajsa, a brightly painted traditional water taxi seating a maximum of six people, and ask for a tour of the harbour. Puttering in and out of the harbour creeks you’ll get much closer views than you would on a tourist boat trip and feel closer to its history too. There used to be hundreds of these little boats ferrying seaman back and forth from their ships. Today the local boatmen will take you across to Vittoriosa for a couple of euros or on a full half-hour tour for around ten – bargain!!

What’s on this week?