The nerd will jokingly list the French, Byzantines, Carthaginians, Normans, Goths, Vandals, Anjouan’s, Aragonese, Aglabids, Fatimids, Hohenstaufens, Mussolinians (this is not a dynasty but a caricature of a dictatorship), and some more!

Well, they were all to Malta! They won and then ruled it, some for only a few decades and some for several centuries. Although according to the millennial principle, the winner writes the history, each new government has made every effort to crush and turn to dust and ashes even the most miniature traces of everything that its predecessors left behind Malta exudes the past at every turn. 

Look at the vibrant buses. In Malta, each bus is unique, unlike the unified city buses in other cities, that only the advertisements of multinational companies differ from each other. The buses are private, so the owners competing over who will make the richer front chrome grid or decorate the interior more beautiful. So the passenger in such a vehicle feels unique. Take a yellow bus as we did, absorb the past, along the shores of the two bays surrounding the peninsula on which the old town core is. And apply the wise maxim which today we often forget – The journey is the goal!

This kind of ghettoization is not necessarily a lousy solution for several practical reasons. It is easier for the police to keep the situation under control, unbearable noise does not spread throughout the island up to the early morning hours, and public transport is so perfectly organized throughout the night that both locals and tourists can destroy themselves with alcohol without fear. The bus or possibly taxi will bring them to their home door or a hotel without any incidental damage. Is it a civilization? Right? 

We survived Paceville night (which irony, the wildest part of the city in the name contains the Italian word Pace – eng. peace), and after improvised anti-hangover therapy and intense rehydration, we move back into the past, which is impossible to avoid in Malta anyway.

We chose Mdina, the former capital. In the Middle Ages, we enter through the stone bridge and the monumental stone gate (cars except for emergencies and weddings there do not have access). Do not the name of the current Mayor of Mdina sound like some time ago? The gentleman is called Peter Dei Conti Sant Manduca! At the time of the Roman Empire, while Malta was the Roman municipium, the Roman governor gave this strategically important point of the island to build its thumb. However, most buildings within the wall originate from the rein period of Fatimids and Normans, from the 8th and 9th centuries. The Baroque Cathedral of St. Paul in the main town square looks so impressive that the data on the number of inhabitants of Mdina sounds almost unbelievable. Today, there are about 230 people in Mdina. 

Speaking of St. Paul, legend says that he brought Christianity here when his ship, stranded on the coast of the Maltese archipelago in 70 years. It sustained and continues to this day despite the Muslim conquest and reign. 

We are leaving the Silent City, as they call this jewel of medieval architecture, which was our only continental destination in Malta. We head to the south of the island. We are back on the shore, this time southern. Bizarre (at least for our ears) names of some towns in Malta – Mtarfa, Mgarr, Mqabba, or Ghaxaq, for example – are still one proof of how many different cultures have intertwined. Thus, the picturesque fishing port full of vessels with incredibly vibrant colors is called Marsaxlokk. The scene that greeted us was an Eldorado for any novice photographer and a great challenge for those of us who know little about photography beforehand.

The statistical likelihood that you will meet the blue sky is high. The number of hours of sunshine in Malta is 2,961 per year. By the way, the lowest ever officially registered temperature in Malta is, imagine, +1.2 degrees Celsius. If you are not, like the author of these lines, locally patriotic so attached to the taste of Adriatic fish (without competition the sweetest in the world!) that all other fish of this world seem tasteless, then in this port of complicated name, in one of the picturesque tavern on the coast, you can eat a variety of seafood for little money. 

The Knights of the Maltese Cross originated in Jerusalem in 1080 as knights’ paramedics who protect and heal pilgrims. During their migrations throughout history, they also became the first firefighters when the Saracens were using a terrible new weapon – fire. 

They arrived in Malta by the grace of the Spanish King Charles V, who ceded the island to them in the 16th century, after being expelled from the Holy Land and operating for some time on Rhodes. They enrich it with culture and art. Even today, the Maltese cross is a symbol of firefighters around the world.