As cities go, Valletta is one of Europe’s most famous. Built over 500 years ago it is often described as a city ‘built by gentlemen, for gentlemen’ and has recently been made a World Heritage Site signifying its cultural importance. When you walk into the city expect an explosion of activity, colour, noise and confusion.
Apart from being Malta’s capital, Valletta is also the commercial and political centre and is filled with hundreds of shops as well as a vast daily market. For the more discerning visitor there is plenty of history and culture to get your teeth stuck into.
Valletta is teeming with museums, galleries, palaces and other places of extreme interest – most of which are very much worth visiting. But, more importantly than all of that, it is the people who make Valletta a truly beautiful place to visit.
Whether you are walking down the main road – Republic Street – or off down one of the many, many side streets, you will find a wide variety of people each with a story to tell. Don’t limit yourself to the beaten track either. Under the fortifications and around the bastions there are plenty of interesting little places to look at, bars to sit in and while away the time and, of course, people to chat to.
We are not for one second suggesting you miss out on attractions like St John’s Cathedral, the Armoury or Museum of Fine Arts. That would be wrong. But we do suggest you take the time to discover the real heart of Valletta.
And what about the Valletta Waterfront?
Grand Master Pinto must never have imagined that the sumptuous warehouses he built 250 years ago, at the height of the baroque period in Malta, would have been turned into one of the hottest leisure spots on the Island. Stretching along the water’s edge and the historical Quay Wall where the Knights of St John and European merchants used to unload their vessels, the Valletta Waterfront invites you to discover its complete mix of retail, dining and leisure experiences.
The various bars, restaurants and night clubs housed here offer a unique experience to patrons who wine and dine in this majestic setting within Malta’s Grand Harbour – a natural deep water port, for many thousands of years the epicentre of Malta’s maritime activity, a truly exceptional and outstanding backdrop.
The Valletta Waterfront has also served as a splendid venue for open-air concerts, where Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant and Italian versatile blues singer Zucchero have enthused thousands to open-air concerts.
One also finds toys, a vast array of typical Maltese souvenirs and handcrafts like Mdina Glass and Gozo Glass products, traditional filigree and lace weave known as ‘bizzilla’ in Maltese as well as classic Knights statuettes. In addition, there is also a wide selection of delicate gifts to suit everybody’s tastes.
The Valletta Waterfront is the gateway to Malta’s capital city, Valletta – a city built by gentlemen for gentlemen. In fact, as one of the most successful Mediterranean ports, the Port of Valletta welcomes more than half-a-million cruise passengers into what can be termed as an “open air” museum.