Today we go to Valletta, the capital city of Malta. It’s a peninsula that juts out in between two harbors. It is a fortified city totally surrounded by very high walls. It has about 7,000 residents and the entire city is just 0.25 square miles. Of the European Union countries, it is the southern most capital and the smallest capital. The entire city is a UNESCO world heritage site. Every street has something of importance to see and the city is sometimes referred to an open-air museum. We’ve made many trips into Valletta and so we weren’t exploring today. We wanted to do just a couple of things.
The first was to visit Sa Maison Garden, which is actually in Floriani, the city you go through to enter Valletta. We stumbled upon this garden in 2016, and have visited it each time we’ve come to Malta. There really isn’t anything spectacular about the garden. It has a long history, like everything in Malta, and traces its roots back to the Knights. It was in British hands for a long period and there are regimental carvings made into the bastion walls. During the late 1800s, when there was also a house attached to the garden, it was rented to Lady Julia Lockwood, and the name of the garden became Her Ladyship’s Garden. There are 5 levels to the garden and there is kind of a plant nursery along the base of some of the fortification walls. It’s just a nice, quiet, shady spot to visit. There are great views of Marsamxett Harbor and the Msida marina. And the Knights Gardjola, the watch tower, is fun to visit where you get 360 degree views of the area.


















We then walked through Floriana and cut through Argotti Botanical Garden. Near that garden are some historic buildings, a water tower that was part of an aqueduct system bringing water to Valletta developed by Grand Master Wignacourt, and a small, round chapel (still in use) built by the Knights.



We walked past St. Publius Church and the area known as the Granaries. Publius was converted by St. Paul after he was shipwrecked on Malta. He was the first bishop of Malta and later became a saint. He is considered the prince of Malta and is revered. The area in front of the church is known as the Granaries. Granaries are pits dug into the ground and covered by circular stone slabs. They were primarily used for the storage of grain. Granaries can be found throughout Valletta and Floriana. The first granaries were built by the Knights to provide for storage within the fortifications in case of a siege.


Independence Mall runs to the city gate entrance to Valletta. The city gate has disappeared and now it is a bridge walkway across the moat around the fortification walls.


We walked down the main street in Valletta, Republikka, along with thousands of other tourists. There are cruise ships in port today, so that makes everything very crowded. I was also amazed by how the main street now caters to high end shopping and so many of the storefronts have been modernized. It takes away some of that historical feel you should get when you walk around Valletta.
We had lunch at Caffe Cordina’s outdoor seating area sitting near Queen Victoria’s statue at the Bibliotheca, Malta’s National Library. Then we went to tour Casa Rocca Piccola, a museum we’ve never visited but had always had it on our list of things to do.
Casa Rocca Piccola is the lived-in home of an ancient Maltese family called de Piro. The 9th Marquis de Piro and his family live in this palace, which goes back 400 years. The place is full of art and artifacts collected by the family over the centuries.
It is one of the very few homes in Valletta that has a garden courtyard. The reason there are no gardens is due to the absence of available water during the time these places were being built. So a garden, with a fountain, was quite unique. There was also a unique pet on display in the garden, a lovely blue and gold macaw named Kiku. There were also 2 red-eared turtles who are also residents.





It was fun walking through the rooms and exploring all the things that this family has collected. In the library, there were family records going back to the early 1600s on the shelves. We also liked looking at all the family trees and certificates awarded to each de Piro marquis. You could also see lots of family photos all over the place, which really made it feel like we were in someone’s home.














One last thing about Casa Rocca Piccola is that a huge bomb shelter had been dug under the house during WWII. It was kind of creepy going down into the maze of tunnels and into the various rooms. Valletta was heavily bombed during the war, daily for more than a year. With the British fleet headquartered in the Grand Harbor, it was the target, and Valletta suffered incredible damage.



We enjoyed our visit to Casa Rocco Piccola and then headed to our final destination in Valletta, Upper Barrakka Garden where the view of the Grand Harbor is spectacular. On our way, we walked past the Grand Master’s Palace, which is under renovation, but the Maltese balcony that rounds the corner and its brackets are great.


With the cruise ships in, Upper Barrakka Garden was crowded. I took a few photos of the harbor and we then headed to the bus to go home.





We stayed in for dinner, eating our leftover lunch and just hanging out. After two days of walking and being active, I was tuckered out. I’m still not feeling 100% so I didn’t mind a low-key evening. Hopefully I’ll feel well enough for a big day tomorrow.