Mdina

This 3000-year-old city, once the political centre of Malta, is filled with Norman and baroque buildings and narrow cobblestone streets. Perched on a rocky outcrop about 15km (9mi) west of Valletta, the so-called Citta Notabile (Noble City) has a commanding view of the island.

Its nickname derives from the many aristocratic Maltese families who still live in town. The best-preserved medieval building is the Norman-style Palazzo Falzon, built in 1495. Mdina has a beautiful main piazza, where you’ll find the 11th-century Roman Catholic Sicula-Norman Cathedral, one of the few buildings to survive an earthquake in 1693. The cathedral museum houses a collection of Dürer woodcuts. The nearby suburb of Rabat (which translates roughly as ’suburb’) has the interesting Museum of Roman Antiquities, which offers exhibits on the island’s 1000 years under Roman rule.