Mdina

Mdina was my favourite place in Malta. It’s just pretty, from start to finish. It’s walled, like Valletta, but smaller, and easy to cover on foot in a couple of hours.

The Silent City (and it was: no cars, minimal shops and tourists) is Malta’s old capital, and the streets are so narrow there’s no room for vehicles except on a couple of main thoroughfares. Only residents are allowed to drive in.

It’s built entirely out of white stone, from the floor to the buildings, and doorways and alleys lead off round intriguing corners and into open courtyards, with a surprising amount to see for a tiny city with so few shops or restaurants.

I counted just a few shops: some souvenir shops, a glassware shop, a jewellery shop, and an ice cream shop, along with a couple of cafes, a very fancy hotel, and a quaint Italian restaurant that made a reasonable pizza.

The rest of the city was mostly residential, with a main cathedral, and a palace building holding a natural history museum.

The residential bits were the most interesting, and the most pretty; colourful shutters adorned huge houses (my favourite was a house decorated entirely in different shades of pink), creeper plants grew upside stone walls, flowers complementing architecture, and doors were painted bright colours, famous for their elaborate and oversized knockers.

The quirk I found most curious though, were the small statuettes inlaid into the walls by many of the houses. Images of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus were delicately carved and set into the walls, some beautiful, some tacky, but all interesting. The whole city is a photographer’s dream.

From the top of the walls, you can see views across Malta. I wasn’t sure what I was looking it, but rolling green fields led out to the sea beyond. Views for days.

Outside the walls, the city is surrounded by lower gardens, in themselves worth a wander around. Landscaped grounds gaze up at the city walls above, and the whole place feels like a step back in time, like a secret only those in the know can experience, and which I was very glad to have found.