48 hours in Valletta
Two days in the capital: bastion walks at dawn, pastizzi for breakfast, harbour crossings and where to end the night on Strait Street.
Start early. Valletta belongs to the locals before nine, when the light is low over the bastions and the only sounds are church bells and espresso machines. Walk in through City Gate, climb to the Upper Barrakka Gardens and watch the Grand Harbour wake up; the saluting battery fires at noon, but the view costs nothing all day.
Breakfast is a warm pastizz (or three) from a hole-in-the-wall on Old Theatre Street, eaten standing up like everyone else. Spend the morning between St John's Co-Cathedral, whose plain facade hides the most extravagant baroque interior in Europe, and the quiet grid of streets on the city's eastern flank, where laundry hangs between gallarija balconies.
In the afternoon, take the ferry across to the Three Cities. Birgu's marina and its tangled lanes deserve a slow couple of hours, and the return crossing at golden hour is the best photograph you will take in Malta. Back in the capital, book dinner inside the bastion tunnel at Rampila or grab a table on a stepped side street and order whatever fish was landed that morning.
After dark, Strait Street takes over. Once the haunt of sailors and jazz bands, the narrow strip is now wine bars, vinyl nights and cocktail rooms in former cabarets. Trabuxu's cellar is the classic opener; where the night goes from there is up to you. Day two: repeat, slower.