TMQE Travels 2020 || MALTA - Mdina, Rabat, Gozo (travel tips)

TMQE Travels are travelling again! This time we’re road-tripping around Malta.
Jérémy and Ben here again! We love to travel and to satisfy our wanderlust, we are on a European roadtrip exploring the best places for a city break on the continent. We love to escape Britain to experience the best culture, cuisine and attractions that Europe has to offer. If you’re a tourist like us and just need a good itinerary for what to do and how to do it when you’re in Malta, we will show you the best things to see and do.
While experiencing the Maltese atmosphere, we visit Mdina, Rabat, Mosta, Gozo and its capital Victoria, St Peter’s Pool and the Tarxien Temples.
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Transcript:
Malta is an archipelago of islands in the Mediterranean Sea between Sicily and Northern Africa. The tenth smallest country in the world, it centres around two main islands, Malta and Gozo, which lies just off the mainland’s north-western coast. Being an island, Maltese culture revolves around the sea, which means lots of fishing and lots of swimming in some of its amazing beaches along its outstandingly beautiful coast.
Malta is a big destination for the British. Could it be to do with the fact everyone speaks English here? Malta actually only gained its independence in 1964 and before that, it was a part of the British Empire. And Britain loved its little Mediterranean baby so much that it really didn’t want to let it go. And there is evidence of its past Britishness all over the island.
Inland is the fortified city of Mdina. Serving as the Maltese capital from antiquity until medieval times, the city still exists fully within its walls, sitting at the top of a hill with views across the entire island. The city was fairly impregnable and has subsequently survived to this day completely intact. Albeit with a few modifications along the way.
Just outside its walls, is the town of Rabat. It has some pretty churches, but the main thing you should do when visiting the town is head underground! Malta is absolutely riddled with ancient catacombs, which are networks of tunnels bored into the bedrock to create burial chambers for early Christians. There are MANY different catacombs you can visit, of varying lengths and depths, but we opted to see the Catacombs of Saint Paul. As Bible buffs will know, Saint Paul was shipwrecked on Malta on his way to Rome in the first century AD and stayed for three months on Malta. And obviously the cave he supposedly lived in is now a shrine. Which you can visit as part of your tour.
Then, a very short drive away, is Malta’s most famous of its 359 churches. The Mosta Rotunda. 359? But Malta is tiny! It’s probably one of the most Catholic places on the planet and you can see pictures and statues of popes wherever you turn, as well as Vatican flags flying alongside their own. The Rotunda’s dome is IMPRESSIVE and was the third largest in the world when it was built and narrowly avoided destruction after a bomb fell through its roof during World War 2 but didn’t explode. Underneath the church, they have preserved some of the old air-raid shelters for the town, which you can visit too.
Malta has been inhabited for a LONG time. Since 5900BC in fact. And there is evidence of its prehistoric inhabitants all over the island, with some amazing preserved temples, which are now UNESCO World Heritage Sites. We visited a few and some are definitely better than others. The Tarxien Temples were the best ones we found to visit without costing us a fortune. Because the best ones, called the Hypogeum of Ħal-Saflieni, costs forty euros to visit! Admittedly it’s underground and looks pretty damn cool. But if we paid 25 Euros to visit the Palace of Versailles, we’re not paying forty to go down a few tunnels.
Next, we hop on a ferry and cross the short causeway to Gozo, passing the island of Comino on the way. There’s the beautiful Blue Lagoon on Comino that you can visit, but we unfortunately didn’t have enough time to go. One of the most striking buildings on Gozo is the Rotunda of Xewkija. More commonly known as the Rotunda of St John the Baptist. It’s been modified a lot over the years, starting with an ornate but small church which they then decided to extend in 1952… Into an enormous barn of a place.
Nearby is Victoria, the biggest town on the island, which contains the citadel. Which is an ancient fortress at the top of a hill, a bit like Mdina, but smaller – But just as perfectly formed.

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