Valletta

While travelling through the Mediterranean, Sir Walter Scott described Valletta as ‘the city built by gentlemen for gentlemen’. Today it’s a beautifully preserved 16th-century walled city, small enough to cover in a few hours without sweating too much in the Mediterranean sun.

Valletta is a rough rectangle at the tip of a peninsula on Malta’s northeast coast. From the City Gate at the southwest edge of Valletta, you can walk to the centre of town through a series of squares surrounded by palaces and cathedrals.