Valletta, Malta 11 June 2026

 Hi all,

Yesterday, we said farewell to Lecce in Italy and made our way to Bari by train, then by Ryan Air to Valletta. The lovely Mathew picked us up as planned at the airport and weaved his way through the narrow streets of Valletta to our abode for the next 8 nights - the U Collection panorama suite. As usual Normie has booked us into the heart of the city, in a pedestrian only section.

Our street is pretty cool, sitting between the Cathedral of St John and the Masters Palace. But the apartment is even better - siting three stories above the very active streets below. We had a quick unpack, found the wifi and headed out for dinner at the Malta dinner time of 8pm. The view from our abode is below:

The dinner was magnificent - Normie couldn’t resist the local specialty, Rabbit casserole - he was in heaven. After a quick local supply stop for essentials (milk, bread and wine) we hit the sack after a long but enjoyable travel day.

Today we walked only a few kilometres, as Valletta is one of the worlds smallest capitals, only 1km long by 600 metres wide - but they pack a lot into the 1/2 a square mile! First stop was the St John’s Cathedral- uniquely a Co-catholic and Knights of St John church. We have seen Baroque, but this is Baroque on steroids!



Even more impressive was that Felicity and Norm’s favourite renaissance painter, Caravaggio, had two of his works, including the largest of his paintings displayed.



Gruesome as usual, Caravaggio’s Beheading of John the Baptist is huge:


After all that we had a stiff drink (iced coffee and pineapple/ginger) and headed to the more sedate Master’s Palace, right next door.


The knights of St John occupied Malta for the 15th to 18th century, until Napoleon intervened.



They left a pretty impressive cultural and architectural legacy.

Before a late Maltese lunch @ 2:30pm we fitted in a visit to the St Elmo’s Fort, built by the knights in the 15th and 16th century. Today the site of a very moving war museum, with a strong focus on the successful Maltese resistance to the Nazi invasion in WWII.



Before lunch we did manage to fit in an aperitivo!

 

Time for a siesta in our first day in the magnificent city of Valletta. All our love from the Travellers ❤️✈️🍷🥘


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