Day 2: October 14

On our second day we took a Bolt car out of the city to visit two ancient Maltese cities: Mdina and Rabat.

Mdina

Mdina is a fortified, ancient city in the western region of Malta. It was the island’s capital from antiquity to the medieval period. Mdina has not spread beyond its ancient walls, and has a population of 250.

Mdina Gate is the main entrance to Mdina and is accessed on foot. Fun fact: for any Game of Thrones fans, Mdina’s main gate was transformed into King’s Landing through which Catelyn arrives before going to Littlefinger’s brothel in Season 1 (not being a Game of Thrones fan, this info means nothing to me). Understandably, many locations in Malta were used for Game of Thrones filming:

Mdina attracts a large number of visitors, about 80,000 each year. It contributes greatly to the heritage of the Maltese Islands with its original setting of Baroque palaces and churches.

The history of Mdina has been archaeologically documented to date back to the Bronze Age. The arrival of Phoenician colonizers on the Maltese Islands in the 8th Century BC gave added impetus to this particular settlement. By Hellenistic/Early Roman times – 5th to 1st Centuries BC – the township had developed considerably.

Mdina was the centre of the Maltese nobility and religious authorities, and property largely continues to be passed down in families from generation to generation. The city has never regained the importance it had before 1530, giving rise to the popular nickname the “Silent City” among both locals and visitors.

Mdina, having largely maintained its medieval character, is on the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and has become one of the main tourist attractions in Malta.

Time For A Break

We took a beverage and rest stop at a charming little restaurant called Coogi’s. It was incredibly calm and restorative here:

St. Paul’s Metropolitan Cathedral of Malta – Mdina

The Metropolitan Cathedral of Saint Paul, commonly known as St. Paul’s Cathedral or the Mdina Cathedral, was founded in the 12th century and, according to tradition, it stands on the site where Roman governor Publius met St. Paul following his shipwreck on Malta.

The original cathedral was severely damaged in the 1693 Sicily earthquake, so it was dismantled and rebuilt in the Baroque style to a design of the Maltese architect Lorenzo Gafà between 1696 and 1705. The cathedral is regarded as Gafà’s masterpiece:

The ceiling contains frescoes, depicting the life of St. Paul, were painted by the Sicilian painters Vincenzo, Antonio and Francesco Manno in 1794.The Manno brothers also painted frescoes on the dome, but these were destroyed during repair works after an earthquake in 1856. A new fresco was painted on the dome by Giuseppe Gallucci in 1860, and was later restored by Giuseppe Calì. Gallucci’s and Calì’s paintings were destroyed due to urgent repair works in 1927, and they were later replaced by a fresco depicting The Glory of St Peter and St Paul by Mario Caffaro Rore. The ceiling was restored by Samuel Bugeja in 1956.

The church is lit up by three stained glass windows which were produced in Victor Gesta’s workshop in the late 19th century.

The Cathedral’s ceiling is covered with frescoes and paintings depicting the life of St. Paul.

The cathedral is one of the main tourist attractions of Mdina. It is a Grade 1 national monument, and is also listed on the National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands.

Lunch Time

And then on to the most important activity of the day: lunch!

While exploring one of the historic streets of Mdina at about mid-day, we were approached by a young woman who was inviting visitors to luncheon up on the roof deck of their admittedly-chic hotel called Bifora. The rooftop restaurant of Bifora was called Lumière (located under canopy near top of shot below); the food, ambience and view were fantastic:

Our Mdina Exploration Continues…

With bellies now full, we resumed our wanderings in Mdina:

Mdina is situated high above terraced fields thus dominating the rural skyline. I shot this short Maltese panorama below from a lookout point in Mdina:

Rabat

The day was getting on so we decided to move on to our second destination: Rabat. Rabat adjoins Mdina; it’s really only about a two-minute walk from one to the other, and the vista doesn’t change all that much, so you almost don’t realize you’ve passed from one city to the other.

Rabat, population 11,497, is an Arabic word which can mean “fortified town” or “suburb”. The Arabic term Ribat refers to a small fortification to host military volunteers.

We took a little wander around this second ancient town:

The Catacombs of Saint Paul’s Basilica

Rabat is home to the Catacombs of St. Paul and of St. Agatha. The Romans dug these catacombs outside their city as a burial place for the dead; they considered burial in the city unhygienic. Mdina and parts of Rabat were later built on top of the ancient Roman city of Melite. The Catacombs of St. Paul are now administered by Heritage Malta.

We didn’t have enough time for a visit to the Catacombs of St Agatha’s, but we did venture down into the depths of St. Paul’s Catacombs:

Now, neither of us are claustrophobic, and no strangers to touring Catacombs and subterranean tunnels – we’ve been through several in Europe during our travels. This one was different, though – it was very unhewn, dimly lit, poorly ventilated, and not as streamlined or visitor-friendly as other catacombs we’ve visited:

As we went further down, the tunnel walls grew narrower, the path underfoot became rougher and more precarious, and the darkness increased as did the foul air. We then somehow got lost and kept on running into dead end tunnels, unable to find our way out in the near-darkness. Talk about anxiety-producing!

Luckily some British tourists stumbled by, so we followed them out (safety in numbers, I guess). There was not a lot left to see anyway so we cut our underground visit short and made our way out.

Leaving the Catacombs behind we found a nice outdoor cafe called Castelletti and downed an Aperol Spritz to chill out 🙂

Darkness was falling so it was time to get back to our home base in Sliema. A quick order on the Bolt app brought a car and driver to us for the return trip to our hotel, albeit through a scary Valletta-Sliema rush hour (a Toronto rush hour can’t begin to remotely touch a Maltese one).

A Perfect Evening Meal

Later that evening we enjoyed an incredible dinner at a nearby Sliema restaurant called Ta’ Kolina, which specialized in Traditional Maltese cuisine. On the menu were such dishes as Bragioli, Rabbit Stew, Traditional Rabbit, Quails, Maltese Cheeselet, Rabbit Ravioli, Lampuki. and Octopus Stew.

It was absolutely delicious! This was definitely one of the best meals we had while visiting Malta. The restaurant is extremely popular and therefore always very busy so, as we found out the hard way, reservations are mandatory if you want to eat here. Animal lover that I am, I took a pass on ordering any of the fluffy bunny dishes (i.e. rabbit). We both ordered from a very comprehensive three-course set menu, all of which was fantastic.

From Ta Kolina’s website:
Ta Kolina is a traditional Maltese family run restaurant located on the gorgeous promenade of Sliema. Our restaurant is housed in one of Sliema’s oldest standing buildings, a traditional Maltese townhouse that has been converted into a restaurant. Our story began over 50 years ago when our family started serving traditional Maltese dishes to the local community. Today, we continue to serve our specialty dishes such as rabbit stew and spaghetti rabbit, as well as fresh fish of the day. We take pride in our local wine list which has been carefully selected to complement our dishes and enhance your dining experience.

End of Day 2 in Malta!