Walking South Street and the Admiralty Quarter in Valletta

Upper Barrakka Gardens and the noon gun

Upper Barrakka Gardens is an arcaded colonnade of honey-limestone arches above the Grand Harbour at the top of Castille Place, with a small neo-Doric temple on a raised terrace. Walk down South Street into Castille Place and the gate is in front of you. The park is free and open 07:00 to 22:00. From the rail you look across to the Three Cities and the shipyard cranes opposite. The glass-and-steel Barrakka Lift shaft rises from the bastion edge beside you, and a return ride is €1.

Saluting Battery is the straight row of polished black cannon on the ledge below the gardens, worked by gunners in khaki British-colonial uniform and white helmets. Watching from the gardens above costs nothing. The ledge itself is €3 for an adult and €1 under 16. Be in place by 11:45 for the midday firing, or come back for the second round at 16:00. Guided tours of the battery run at 10:00, 13:00 and 14:00, cost €17, and need booking ahead.

The tunnels under Castille Place

Lascaris War Rooms are whitewashed tunnels cut deep into the bastion rock beneath Castille Place, lined with 1940s plotting tables and convoy maps, bakelite telephones, teleprinters and bare bulbs on conduit. This was the command centre for the siege of Malta and later for Operation Husky. Entry is €20 for an adult and €7 for a child, and the War HQ tunnel tour is €17. The site is cashless and takes card only. The tunnels are narrow and one-way, so a group has to pre-book. It closes on Sundays and major holidays.

Galleries at Castille Place and on Republic Street

Spazju Kreattiv is inside St James Cavalier at Castille Place, a squat 16th-century limestone fort you enter up a curving ramp. Its vaults are now white-walled galleries around a glass-topped stair core, with a theatre-in-the-round. The exhibitions are free to walk into. Cinema and theatre tickets are charged separately and the seat counts are small, so book ahead for a party. It closes Mondays. Time an early-evening visit between Tuesday and Sunday, before you start on the wine bars.

Malta Society of Arts has four linked galleries up a grand stair inside Palazzo de La Salle at 219 Republic Street, warm parquet floors under painted canvas ceilings, hung with contemporary Maltese work. It was founded in 1852. Entry is free and you can walk in. Shows rotate monthly, so check what is hanging before you go. This is a working members' institution, and changeover days leave rooms shut.

Two churches on Victory Square

Church of Our Lady of Victory stands on Castille Place behind a small single-bay baroque façade, a carved relief of the Virgin above the door. It was built in 1566 to mark the end of the Great Siege and is the oldest building in Valletta. Din l-Art Ħelwa looks after it now. The barrel vault inside carries Alessio Erardi's frescoes of 1716 to 1718 in gold, rose and pale blue. Entry is free, with a donation box. Hours are 08:45 to 16:00 Monday to Friday, 10:00 to 16:00 on Saturday, and Sunday mornings only. Dress modestly, and keep quiet during the 08:45 Mass. The church is too small to hold a coach party.

Church of St Catherine of Italy faces it across Victory Square, one minute away, octagonal and domed behind a Girolamo Cassar façade. The interior is dim and gilded, and Mattia Preti's Martyrdom of St Catherine hangs over the altar. Entry is free. The Italian-language parish still uses the church, so avoid the Sunday 10:00 Mass. The two of them together take a free half-hour.

MUŻA and the old Admiralty House

The quarter is named for Admiralty House on South Street, which held the national art collection until it closed in 2016. The building is being turned into government offices. The collection now hangs two minutes away in MUŻA, the Auberge d'Italie on Merchants Street, behind a rusticated façade with a bronze bust of Grand Master Carafa over the portal. White contemporary galleries wrap around an open stone courtyard, and there is lift access throughout. Entry is €10 for an adult, €7.50 for a senior and €5.50 for a child. Heritage Malta will arrange a group rate and a guided slot on request.

Sunset at Hastings Gardens

Hastings Gardens is at the other end of the quarter's cross-streets, on grassed ramparts on top of St John's and St Michael's bastions. The white pyramid-topped tomb of the Marquis of Hastings stands on the grass, and the view runs northwest over Marsamxett Harbour to Manoel Island. The park is free and opens daily from 07:00, with an evening closing hour that moves by season. It is the quietest of the Valletta gardens, and sunset is the hour to come.

Eating between South Street and Merchants Street

Trabuxu has candlelit limestone-vaulted cellar rooms at 8/9 South Street, bottles racked on bare stone shelves, with small wooden tables out on the pavement. Glasses are €5 to €8 and mains €18 to €26. The bistro is small, so six or more people need a booking. It serves lunch and dinner Monday to Saturday and closes on Sundays. The original cellar wine bar round the corner on Strait Street absorbs a standing group better.

Rubino is a narrow old confectioner's shopfront at 53 Old Bakery Street, dark wood and a patterned tile floor, the daily specials recited at your table. It has been open since 1906 and holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand for rabbit, bragioli and the ricotta cassata that sits in a tray on the counter. Mains are €22 to €30. Booking is by phone only, and a party of four to six should call days ahead. It closes on Sundays and serves lunch only on Saturdays.

Under Grain is the vaulted dining room under the Rosselli palazzo on Merchants Street, dark walls with tailor's-shop detailing and spotlit tables beneath bare rock. It has held a Michelin star for seven consecutive years. Tasting menus are €100 to €160 per head. Give dietary needs when you book, and ask about private dining if you want a room to yourselves. The format suits a small party.

Drinks and the vault by City Gate

Yard 32 is a small courtyard bar in a lane behind the Law Courts off Strait Street, one minute from the top of South Street, its back wall shelved floor to ceiling with gin bottles, bunting and lanterns strung overhead. It was Malta's first gin bar, and it pours gin and tonics at €10 to €14, with tapas at €8 to €12. It opens evenings only and closes Mondays and Tuesdays. It takes a group of up to eight, and it fills fast after 20:00 on Friday and Saturday.

Rampila is in a 16th-century gun position at the head of the quarter beside City Gate, with tables set inside the stone tunnel and ditch of St John's Cavalier and a separate terrace on top of the bastion looking back at the walls. A small exhibition covers the fortifications. Mains are €22 to €32, and the kitchen runs straight through from 12:00 to 22:30. The vaulted private dining room is the booking to make for a larger table.

Where to stay

Hotel Castille fills a 400-year-old palazzo at 348 St Paul's Street, on the corner of Castille Square facing the Auberge de Castille. Doubles are €120 to €200 a night, and the hotel handles group bookings. It is steps from South Street, the Barrakka gardens and the bus terminus. The De Robertis rooftop terrace above it looks out over Upper Barrakka and the Grand Harbour and serves non-residents, which makes it an easy place to gather people before dinner.

Iniala Harbour House is the row of restored townhouses along St Barbara Bastion below the gardens, with enclosed painted Maltese timber balconies and a dining terrace on the fourth floor hanging over the Grand Harbour. Suites commonly cost more than €500 a night, and a family can take suites or whole residences together. It holds Forbes five stars and two Michelin Keys, and ION Harbour by Simon Rogan, Malta's only two-star restaurant, sits on the harbour wall below. The restaurants are small, and you book them separately from a room. St John's Co-Cathedral is a five-minute walk up through the grid.

For rates and dates across the city, use the Valletta hotel search.

Before you go

Mondays and Tuesdays shut Yard 32, Mondays also shut Spazju Kreattiv, and Sundays shut the Lascaris War Rooms, Trabuxu and Rubino. Pre-book the War Rooms for a group, the Saluting Battery tour in advance, Rubino by phone and the Rampila vault for a larger table, and carry a card for the War Rooms.

See the Valletta guide for the rest of the city.