For my long daily walk, I decided to take the bus to a new to me area. Time travel to Mdina & Rabat was on the menu today. Mdina is an incredibly old city and up until 400 years ago, used to be the capital of Malta. It is full of history, a gorgeous cathedral and beautiful buildings. Rabat is its more commercial neighbour.
Getting There
The Malta Public Transport system is stellar. The buses are usually on time, or fairly close to schedule and they are clean. Every ride is a flat 2 Euro and you can ride for 2 hours with that ticket. I purchased a 12 ride card from a machine for 15 Euro’s so I can simply tap on each time I hop on the bus.
From my hood, it takes two buses to get to Mdina and just under one hour.
To find any route, simply google Malta bus routes, input your destination and voila, it will give you options. Or, you can google map your route and that will give you the bus numbers, duration of trip and any alternate route you desire.
Mdina
The city has been around since the bronze age when it was a fortified settlement on a hill. In 870AD it was conquered by the Arabs, the name was changed to Mdina, and a second wall was added separating it from Rabat by a ditch. Since then, it has remained unchanged.
I have to say, I was not expecting what I found. From the little reading I did on the city, I was fully expecting a working city, just small and withing ancient fortified walls. Mdina now, is basically a large outdoor museum. There remain some offices, souvenir shops and a few restaurants, but inside the city walls feels very touristy.
I arrived at 9am and by 10:30am it was very crowded. There are horse drawn carriage rides travelling the streets as well as a few cars, so it can get fairly stressful manoeuvring down the narrow streets later in the day.
St. Paul’s Cathedral & Museum
I decided to pay the 10 Euro to visit this cathedral and its accompanying museum. It was overcast and cold and this gave me the chance to be out of the weather. I went as soon as I arrived into Mdina and found both places easy to navigate.
St. Paul’s Cathedral is stunning. Besides the obvious, what attracted me were the ornate granite tombstones on the floors. The church was recovering from the festivities the evening before, so unbeknownst to me, I was able to enter into two vestibules that should have been roped off, and promptly were after my exit.
If you are an art admirer, more specifically religious art, then the museum will be right up your alley. I couldn’t believe the amount of paintings and interesting artifacts inside. It was much larger than I had anticipated. You could get right up and close to everything. Very little was roped off or behind glass.
The most beautiful old fabric garments were one of the items protected by a glass barrier and rightly so. There I saw exquisite hand embroidery from as early as 1645. Absolutely gorgeous silk garments worn by the local clergy right up to the 19th century.
Rabat
Rabat was what I thought Mdina would be like, just behind walls. It is a beautiful old city, full of quaint shops, eateries and businesses. The streets are busy and there is a liveliness to being in such a condensed area.
I found the best bakery here called Parruccan which is where I purchased my traditional Maltese Easter treats. Prices were high, but it was so close to the main tourist area, of course they would be.
I found both Mdina and Rabat bustling with activity. I ducked out of the area at 1 pm and made my way by bus, back to Valletta. I cannot image what either place, especially Mdina would be like at the height of tourist season in the summer. With the heat, tiny streets and tremendous crowds, it would be really trying. Unless of course you are one of those people, who thrive in chaos and crowded spaces. 😂
