Valletta is a city drawn with a ruler. After the Great Siege of 1565, when the Knights of St John and the Maltese held out through a summer against the Ottoman fleet, Grand Master Jean de Valette decided to build a fortress city on the narrow peninsula between two deep harbours, and the foundation stone went down in 1566. The streets run in a straight grid, which was unusual for the time, and the steep ones end in steps and views of the sea. Within a couple of generations it was one of the finest baroque cities in Europe, and it is still compact enough to walk end to end in half an hour.
The jewel is St John's Co-Cathedral, plain outside and overwhelming inside, with every wall and floor covered in gilded carving and inlaid marble tombs of the knights. In the oratory hangs Caravaggio's Beheading of Saint John, the largest painting he ever made, which he painted while a fugitive in Malta and which carries his only known signature, written in the blood of the saint. Upper Barrakka Gardens look over the Grand Harbour, where a noon gun is still fired, and the view of the fortified harbour across the water is quite something.
Malta drives on the left, a legacy of British rule that lasted until 1964, and the island is small enough that riders find themselves in a different corner within an hour. The streets are steep and sometimes slippery with polished stone, so take care in the wet. Fuel is not a problem on such a small island, and Floriana and the surrounding urban area have several stations.
The best riding on the island lies elsewhere, along the west coast and out to the Dingli cliffs, but the sea approach is worth a thought. Many riders reach Malta from Sicily by ferry, arriving by the Grand Harbour below the bastions, which is a fine entrance for a motorcycle trip.
Come out of season if you can, in spring or autumn, when the limestone is warm but not oven-hot and the cruise ships are fewer.