Saħħa to Malta

I suspect I'll feel this way about many of my stops on this trip, but I could easily have spent more time in Malta.

It has been a lovely country to visit, Valletta in particular. While it absolutely could be a little more modern, its streets a little more pedestrianised and its stairs a little less steep, it has a very pleasant, safe feel to it. Its streets are filled with al fresco diners, live music fills the air in the evenings, and the selection of restaurants available couldn't be wider. The verticality of the city adds to the pleasantness of it - the view over the harbour, looking out to the Three Cities, is so much more spectacular as a consequence of being situated at the top of a cliff.

I spent the most time in Valletta, but several other towns gave me a good impression too - Marsaxlokk had a very nice promenade, while the neighbourhood of Żejtun also had a pleasant vibe. That's not to say everywhere has that same ambience - driving through Malta's largest city, Birkirkara, felt quite grotty, and Gozo is definitely not as easy to navigate as the mainland.

There are elements of familiarity with the UK too - the plug sockets are the same as ours, they also drive on the left, and English is spoken more fluently then any other Mediterranean country I've visited. For a country located so close to Italy, it surprised me how distinct Maltese is from other European languages, sounding more similar to Arabic than to any Romance language.

If I had more time, I would have loved to visit M'dina, and to have spent more time in the streets of Valletta. But the journey calls, and my next stop is waiting for me across the Mediterranean Sea, in Sicily.Read more