Malta: Valletta & the 3 cities

Continued from Part 1

Capital city was the agenda for the day! Since we had tried the bus route to Valletta the previous day, we decided to take the ferry. The Sliema ferry was a 10 minute walk away, and in 15 minutes we were on the Valletta side. A 15 minute walk along lovely cobblestone streets got us to the day’s first agenda – the St.John’s Co-Cathedral. A short queue and 10 euros (each) later, we were inside. A while later, when we passed the cathedral again, we realised we had gotten lucky with the queue, it was really long and extended way down the street. An early start, therefore, is a good idea. 

The cathedral interior is the most magnificent I have seen. Excellent baroque style, and we wondered how they had managed to paint the ceiling in such detail. The audio guide ensures you are able to get the details quite easily.

D had sneaked in Amorino after I had finalised the plan. This is a short walk from the cathedral and the ice cream’s taste was easily overshadowed by its trademark presentation. 

The main streets of Valletta were extremely crowded by now, though the side streets were less so. We also saw (heard first) quite a few Malayalis and finally believed what we had heard when we landed. The next stop was Teatru Manoel, the third oldest functioning theatre in Europe. At 5 euros pp, you get access, and a printout with the history. We wandered around, and watched a band practising. 

One of the day’s main events was the cannon firing at 12 at Upper Barrakka Gardens. This was a 15 min walk away and if you’re in time (12 or 4PM), you can get a first row view of the harbour and the cannons. 

The view of the three cities is spectacular!

After the cannon firing, we left for the Lower Barrakka Gardens, another 15 mins walk away. This was less crowded and much more peaceful than its upper counterpart, and offers its own excellent views. The Siege Bell War memorial and neoclassical temple later, we walked to Republic Street. The streets were crazy crowded by this time! 

We had picked our lunch spots, but changed our mind to Luciano, which offered a wonderful open, shaded space. The rabbit stew and bragioli (stuffed beef rolls) were both delicious, washed down with cider. 

We took the 3.15 PM ferry to the 3 cities. 15 minutes later, we were on the other side. Birgu, Senglea and Cospicua are the names of the fortified localities. The ferry lands in Cospicua, and everything we needed to see was accessible on foot.

A 15 mins walk took us to Fort St.Angelo, at the tip of the Birgu peninsula. A 13 euros pp ticket gave us entry to this, as well as the two other places we wanted to see. The fort offers a splendid view of Valleta, in addition to well preserved remnants of its history. There were very few people around and we liked the sereneness of the place so much that we spent more time than planned. 

The Malta Maritime Museum, our next stop, was 10 minutes away. There, we were informed that both the museum as well as the Inquisitor’s Palace would shut at 5PM, and 4.30 would be the last entry time. That meant we had less than 45 minutes, and 15 minutes to get to the latter! But it turned out to be a reasonably unhurried tour despite that. Maybe it was because we were visiting during the shoulder season, but the crowds were very thin.

We then slowly walked around to Dejqa to catch the bus to Isla, which would take us closer to our last stop – Gardjola Gardens. We passed St.Lawrence’s Church on the way, and a 10 minute walk took us to the bus stop. But we were quite early, and as we waited, we were told by the locals that the buses along this route had been canceled because of roadwork. We persisted because we saw a bus pass by but hopes were dashed when our bus failed to arrive on time. As per Maps, Gardjola Gardens was a 30 min walk away, but one of the locals had also showed us a short cut. We got to Isla fairly fast (10 mins) and on the way, also caught the restaurants we had earmarked for dinner. 

Tip: Check out Rolling Geeks for an interesting way to tour the three cities.

From Isla, Gardjola Gardens was around 5 mins away, but the place was quite underwhelming. The streets were almost completely deserted and we decided that going back to Valletta for dinner was a better idea.

From the Isla terminus, we got a bus pretty fast, and made our way to Valletta. It was stunning to see the change in Valletta at this time of the day. There were very few people around. We dined at Kantina, which was run by pretty much an all-women team, including one with a contagious cheerfulness! 

We caught the bus to Valletta and reached Ponsonby to end a day that was quite a walkathon!