Malta cities to visit by hire car

Rabat

Near the gates of Mdina, the Roman villa and museum is worth visiting. This small, col¬umned building made of pink¬ish stone, and garlanded with rhododendrons, has been built over the mosaic floors and out¬line walls of the Roman origi¬nal. Inside, you can see pottery from Carthaginian and Greek tombs as well as some superb Roman glass. Downstairs in the atrium you'll find the fine mosaics, some made of especially tiny tesserae, which allow for their particular delicately detailed pictures.

The adjoining Arab cemetery fortunately managed to just miss the mosaics when its graves were dug. Rabat itself is Mdina's twin city. St Augustine's Church, found on St Augustine Street, was built by Caesar two years before the cathedral in Val¬letta. The latter is foreshad-owed by the former, especially by its massive barrel vaulted interior. In the heart of Rabat, on S2 Parish Square, is the 16thcen tury St Paul's Church, which some think was at least partly the work of Lorenzo Gafa, in particular the big dome.

Next to the church (on the left, downstairs) is the entrance to 8t Paul's Grotto, where the saint supposedly took shelter when he was in Malta. Legend has it that no matter how much stone was extracted from the cave, by some miracle it al¬ways grew back. The catacombs (St Paul's and St Agatha's; signs point the way) are cool mazes of galleries and passageways. Their extent suggests that a large Christian community lived in the area in the 4th and 5th cen¬turies. The circular stone plat¬forms are thought to have been tables for funeral feasts where guests reclined in Roman-style, and some of the cham¬bers seem to have been used for prayer meetings. St Aga¬tha's catacombs show traces of frescoes depicting saints, doves and shell designs.

Verdala Buskett and Dingli Malta

Take the road from Rabat to Buskett, and Verdala Castle lies just east off the road, a few minutes from Rabat. It is open on Tuesdays and Fridays, with tours conducted by the curator, and is well worth a visit. Once the summer residence of Grand Masters and Governors, it is now an occasional retreat for the President and guests. Gero¬lamo Cassar built this square castle surrounded by a moat and pine groves in 1586 for the Grand Master de Verdalle, Cardinal Verdala. It has a mag¬nificent elliptical staircase and a superb view from the roof.

The Buskett or Boschetto (meaning 'little wood') is one of the island's greenest spots, where the knights raised their falcons for hunting. On 28 and 29 June, Malta's folklore festival is held here. These woods are also the setting for Gir¬genti, the summer palace of the Inquisitor, a good place to relax from his weighty duties. (It is not open to visitors.) At nearby Dingli Cliffs, a sheer drop of 250m (800ft) down to the sea gives a dizzy¬ing view. The islet in the dis¬tance is Filfla, made even smaller by the British who used it for bombing practice.

Between the Buskett Gar¬dens and the cliffs, signs to 'Clapham Junction' (a joke reference to the busiest London train station) direct you to one of the best areas to see prehis¬toric 'cart ruts'. A broad rocky slope is grooved in rectangles where great stones were quarried, and deep, curv¬ing double tracks lead down the hill. They were made by some kind of sled on which the stones were dragged away. Ghar Lapsi is a mere cluster of buildings under the cliffs, but it is one of the few ways down to the sea near here, so the tiny beach is a local favourite.

The Blue Grotto Malta

Further east, by the road to Zurrieq, is Malta's Blue Grotto not as large as Capri's, nor as crowded. The approach road offers some spectacular views and leads to a small car park, where you'll find boatmen in their colourful water taxis ready to shuttle you round the point and into the limestone caves. Try to go in the morning before 10 o'clock, when sunlight slants into the caves to reflect off the white sandy bottom. In some places your hand will glow turquoise blue if you drag it in the water. The 25minute excursion takes in several caves, where the limestone is tinted pink, mauve and orange by coral and minerals, especially in one called 'Reflection Cave'. In the best light, the Blue Grotto it¬self is a luminous, pure blue, and a square natural 'window' in the rock gives the effect of a fluorescent lamp.

Marsaxlokk Malta and car hire at Luqa Airport

If you want to see the best of Malta, and take your time to travel around, pre-book a hire car from Luqa Airport, where car rentals are reasonably-priced.While you're in the area, you could visit the twin temple sites of Hagar Qim and Mnaj dra, which are close at hand on the cliff top. Marsaxlokk, on an eastern arm of Marsaxlokk Bay, is the largest fishing village in Malta, colourful and peaceful, with bobbing luzzu boats, fishermen mending their nets, and a good choice of seafood restaurants around the harbour.

Within the larger bay, St George's Bay is the site of Ghar Dalam and Pretty Bay was once a favourite local holiday haunt industry and modern installa¬tions have made it less worthy of its name. Dragut the pirate landed in Marsaxlokk in 1565, and in the 17th century several defensive towers were built. This didn't deter Napoleon, whose troops disembarked here in 1798. In more modern times the bay was a seaplane base.

A small road running down to Delimara Point takes you past Tassilg Chapel, where there is a Carmelite Monastery, and the site of a Punic Roman temple. You can swim from the rocks at Peter's Pool but St Thomas Bay is shallow, sandy and popular with wind¬surfers. Between the two, at Xrobb Ilghagin are some ves¬tiges of a Neolithic temple. Marsaskala, at the head of its own narrow bay, is like a smaller Marsaxlokk, complete with pastel houses and colour¬ful fishing boats.

Rapid build¬ing in recent years has lined the inlet with apartments and villas and, where it meets the sea, one of Malta's biggest hotels. Although relatively fertile, this part of Malta was once difficult to defend, and so was under populated. Its sandy beaches are now a big attraction. As you’re heading this way, you will hardly miss one of the island's outstanding land d marks, the dome of the parish) church in the busy little town of Mosta. St Mary's was built with local money and by vol¬untary labour between 183360 to the designs of the architect Giorgio de Va sse, and the in¬habitants are justly proud of it.

The magnificent, enormous dome, whose 37m (123ft) dia¬meter makes it one of the largest in the world, was con¬structed without the use of scaffolding. Behind a classical facade, the impression inside is one of 'all dome', surrounded by apses. The geometrical mar¬ble floor heightens the effect. A bomb fell through the dome on 9 April 1942, sliding across the floor without exploding a miracle for those present. A replica of the bomb stands in the sacristy on the left.

St Andrews Malta

North-west from Sliema and St Julian's, St Andrew's was once a huge army base, now converted into civilian housing and holiday facilities. The road runs alongside the coast again at Bahar ic Cag¬haq, where there is a water park. After several headlands and old towers, you arrive at Salina Bay, with a small play¬ground, salt pans and reed beds. Further round the bay at Qawra (remember the Q is almost silent), big resort hotels and beach clubs offer plenty of water sports facilities.

Next, by rounding Qawra Point, where the knights' fort is now a restaurant, or by cut¬ting across the peninsula, you will come to St Paul's Bay. On its south side, Bugibba vil¬lage and the town of San Pawl il Bahar have grown together into a major holiday resort, with water sports and swim¬ming from the rocks or small sandy beaches. Hotels, apartments, restaurants, bars and discos have sprung up, but tra¬ditional life continues too, in the old parts of town and the fishing harbour. St Paul came ashore near here after he was shipwrecked in AD 60.

The legend goes that it was on the larger of the two islands you can see over the water. Ghajn Razul ('apostle's fountain') is said to be where he struck a rock, which mirac¬ulously brought forth water.