Category: Malta

Mdina: Malta’s Silent City

Mdina: Malta’s Silent City Mdina, Malta’s old capital, sits on a ridge in the centre of the island, a compact walled town of honey-coloured limestone whose bastions and cathedral dome can be seen for miles across the plain. For most of its history it was the island’s seat of government and of its bishops. Today […]

Knights of St John in Malta: Valletta and the Three Cities

Knights of St John in Malta: Valletta and the Three Cities Walk into St John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta and the ceiling alone will stop you mid-step: a barrel vault of gilded stone carving, painted almost entirely by hand, commissioned by men who had spent their careers at war. That contrast, between austere military vocation and […]

Things to Do in Valletta, Malta: A Historical Guide for Travellers

Things to Do in Valletta, Malta: A Historical Guide for Travellers Valletta rises from its harbour like an idea made permanent in honey-coloured limestone — a capital the Knights of St John built, deliberately, as a fortress worthy of the men who had just survived a four-month siege by the Ottoman Empire. Barely a kilometre […]

Mediterranean Islands Itinerary: Malta, Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica

Mediterranean Islands Itinerary: Malta, Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica Four islands, four very different histories, and one sea that has connected them for three thousand years — that is the premise behind a well-built Mediterranean islands itinerary. Malta’s Baroque capital, Sicily’s Greek and Arab-Norman layers, Sardinia’s Bronze Age towers and Corsica’s mountain villages rarely appear in […]

Malta Itinerary for Mature Travellers: Valletta to Gozo

Malta Itinerary for Mature Travellers: Valletta to Gozo Malta rewards travellers who slow down. Within an archipelago you could drive across in an afternoon, sit a UNESCO-listed Baroque capital, a walled medieval city on a hilltop, and a temple complex older than Stonehenge — layered history packed into a very small footprint. Five days is […]

Learning about Caravaggio’s Paintings: The Definitive Guide for Seniors

Caravaggio’s Paintings Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610) was a leading 16th century Italian painter whose short but tempestuous life rivalled the controversy and drama he created through his highly influential art. Born in Lombardy, northern Italy, he had always been known by the name of his hometown–Caravaggio. He made waves in Rome‘s artistic circles with […]

Megalithic temples of Ġgantija, Malta

Megalithic temples of Ġgantija, Malta The megalithic temples of Ġgantija, on the Maltese island of Gozo, are among the world’s oldest free-standing structures (Göbekli Tepe in Turkey is one of the few that are older), predating Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids of Egypt. The site consists of two temples and an incomplete third, built on […]

Gozo, Malta

Gozo has been inhabited since 5000 BC, when farmers from nearby Sicily crossed over. The island is home to many of the world’s oldest freestanding buildings, including the famous neolithic Ġgantija temples.

Valletta, Malta

Valletta, Malta Few European cities capture the imagination quite like Valletta, the evocative golden capital of Malta. Only 1 kilometre by 600 metres, it packs in so much history and culture that when it was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site, UNESCO described it as ‘one of the most concentrated historic areas in the world’. […]

Malta

Malta A Mediterranean archipelago between Sicily and the coast of North Africa, Malta packs a wealth of beautiful scenery and fascinating history into one of the world’s smallest landmasses. It is also the starting point of Odyssey’s Mediterranean Islands itinerary, which continues on from here to Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica. Tours visiting Malta Two small […]

Piecing together the life of Caravaggio

Uncovering Caravaggio The following article picks up on, and extends, our general introduction to Caravaggio. Here, we we delve further into the details of Caravaggio’s early life and relationships and use available evidence to piece together his career and events leading to his untimely death. Odyssey Traveller offers a tour based on the life and […]

Caravaggio: The Definitive Reading List

Who was Caravaggio? Caravaggio became the greatest painter of religious works of the early 17th century. His dramatic but naturalistic style of painting emphasised the common humanity of his subjects, the apostles and martyrs of the Christian faith. He is credited with introducing two techniques aimed at enhancing reality: the use of live models, and […]

Malta vs Sardinia vs Corsica: Choosing Between the Islands

Malta vs Sardinia vs Corsica: Choosing Between the Islands Malta vs Sardinia is a closer contest than the map suggests. One is a compact, English-speaking island nation of honey-coloured limestone towns, Baroque churches and Neolithic temples; the other is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean, with Bronze Age nuraghe towers, a granite coast and a […]

Getting Between Malta, Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica: Ferries and Routes

we will answer some frequently asked questions that travellers have about Malta, Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica, before an in-depth look at the key destinations and main highlights

Malta; Megalithic temples, ‘fat ladies’, and the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum

Malta; Megalithic temples, ‘fat ladies’, and the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum The tiny islands that comprise Malta, set in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, are home to prehistoric art and architecture out of all proportion to their size, although the origins of these ancient buildings remain largely unexplained. The islands’ early remoteness in human settlement […]