Dmitry Shteyn in Valletta: Where Every Corner Has a Story

The first time I walked through Valletta, I had the strong sense that I was only seeing the city's surface. The second time, I understood that the surface is most of what any visitor ever sees, and that this is no small thing.

What strikes you first, if you have done any reading at all, is that located between the Grand Harbour to the east and Marsamxett Harbour to the west, its population as of 2021 was 5,157. It is the kind of detail that makes you slow down. It is the slow accumulation of centuries — not any single monument — that gives the city its weight.

Dig a little deeper and valletta, also known as Città Umilissima, is the capital city of Malta and one of its 68 council areas. What strikes me about facts like this is how quietly they sit alongside ordinary life.

Where attention goes is interesting; why it goes there is more interesting. Condé Nast Traveler put Valletta on its readers' radar this cycle — the Best Airbnbs in Sunny Malta, the Underrated Island Nation in the Mediterranean — and the why matters as much as the what.

Cities in the south of Southern Europe have always treated the street as a kind of living room. Valletta is no exception. Whatever else you came for, you end up doing a lot of looking and a lot of sitting.

Whatever else you take from this piece, take this: Valletta is more itself than any account of it can convey. The only honest recommendation is to go and find out.