Valletta

Today’s agenda was to explore Valletta which is Malta’s capital. So after breakfast, we walked down to the Sliema-Valletta ferry which runs every 30 minutes and takes less than 10. A view of the city from the ferry:



Upon arrival, we walked about ten minutes uphill to St. John's Co-Cathedral. It’s a Co-Cathedral because when it was built, they thought it should be the city Cathedral along with St. Paul’s that we visited in the Mdina.

We had bought tickets online and were fast-tracked in. This was the first thing I saw after going through security:



The Cathedral is ridiculously ornate with floors made up of knights’ tombs:





There are marble tombstones of important knights and chapels all around the church, all very gilded:





The Cathedral was dedicated to John the Baptist, the patron saint of the Knights of Malta. In researching, I learned the Knights of Malta were a catholic military order and traditionally called the Order of St. John. They had been headquartered on other Mediterranean islands like Rhodes and Cyprus, but had eventually settled in Malta and helped develop the economy and city. They were also known to build hospitals.

But what’s also famous at the Cathedral are two Caravaggio paintings including the largest in the world and the only one signed by him, “The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist”.

He lived in Malta for several years as he was a fugitive after having killed someone in a brawl in Rome. They think he had a temper from being exposed to all the lead in his paints. He was briefly a knight before he got into another brawl and was ultimately defrocked and expelled. Despite his unruly backstory, Caravaggio was most known for chiaroscuro, or the use of dark and light in his paintings as shown in this masterpiece which hangs above the altar in the Oratory:







Mama Kim was really stoked to learn this was here as she studied him in her art appreciation class. Around the corner from the Oratory, hangs another Caravaggio called, “Saint Jerome Writing”:





We watched a short film on Caravaggio and walked through a tiny immersive exhibition. We were also lucky to have gotten to the Cathedral relatively early as we could tell the cruise groups were starting to pile in. After our Cathedral visit, we walked around Valletta:



And headed to the Upper Barrakka gardens:





We rested here, people-watched, and enjoyed the beautiful cool weather on the garden terrace overlooking the famous cannons and harbor:





We then left through the city gate and walked down the plaza:





There wasn’t much else here, so we returned through the city gate and found a restaurant on the way back to the gardens called Galea Kitchen. We both had different types of seafood pastas and then picked up some ice cream before heading to the War Rooms and Saluting Battery back at Upper Barrakka.

We could have watched the cannon fire from the garden terrace, but decided to head down and pay the €3 per person admission charge where it wasn’t crowded and we grabbed a bench. We also got to hear more explanations about the famous cannons and beyond what I had learned from BTS’ Bon Voyage trip:







Here, my mom and I are taking photos of each other as we waited for the 4 pm cannon fire:



Two cannons were prepared but only one was able to fire. Apparently, there was an issue with the fuse which happens quite commonly but not frequently according to the guard.



We then departed through the city gate and passed the Triton Fountain which was now running and was on BTS’ Bon Voyage:



I had given my mom the option of Uber, ferry, or bus and she opted for the bus which departs right in front of the city gate. However, we accidentally boarded TD13 and not the 13 bus, so we got off and took an Uber to our hotel when I saw we would start to veer off.

What a nice and easy day enjoying Valletta! I had weighed visiting other parts of the island, but felt spending more time in the capital would be more relaxing and enjoyable for our last day in Malta.