A Week in Malta & Gozo - Victoria, Gozo and Cittadella (Day 5)

When you enter Saint John’s Co-Cathedral, your jaw may immediately drop!

UPDATED: 2/5/2023

Note: Some links throughout our site are affiliate links, which means we may receive a small commission at no cost to you.

We started the day returning to our new favorite breakfast spot in Valletta and ended it by finding our new favorite dinner spot on Gozo. Sandwiched between those meals (pun definitely intended), we explored a final spot in Valletta - the mesmerizing St. John’s Co-Cathedral - took a cross-country car ride to the Malta to Gozo ferry, and explored the walled Cittadella, perched in the middle of Malta’s smaller island of Gozo. With two days in Gozo, we made sure to quickly get our bearings to enjoy this portion of our trip.

Visiting St. John’s Co-Cathedral and Saying Goodbye to Valletta

It was with sadness that we woke up realizing that we would be leaving Valletta. For the second day in a row, we went to Café Piadina for croissants, cappuccinos, and orange juice which we enjoyed on their sidewalk seating. You can read more about the restaurant and its unique set-up on our prior blog.

A few days earlier, we had missed getting into St. John’s Co-Cathedral due to its early closure on Saturdays. We figured we had just (barely) enough time to see it before heading out of the city. So, we made our way to the cathedral around its opening time of 9:30am and knew we only had one hour to spend since we had to check out of our Airbnb by 11am.

Luckily, the line wasn’t too long this early in the morning, but we had seen how long it could get as we had walked by other days. The interior was amazing, and we were so glad we had found the time to get inside, even if we did have to keep a close watch on the time. As I mentioned in a prior post, Malta requires conservative attire in churches, so tank tops, short shorts/dresses/skirts, and high heels are not permissible. The church has what I would describe as disposable shawls to people who need to cover up. This requirement is definitely enforced, so you may want to select your clothes for the day accordingly.

Upon entering, visitors are handed audio guides you can play corresponding to numbers situated around the cathedral. The audio guide headphones were a bit odd, and I had a tough time getting mine to stay on successfully. I also found that even with the volume turned all the way up, it was difficult to hear the audio with all the ambient noise of the large group of visitors. That said, Dustin didn’t have the same volume issue so perhaps mine was defective. But regardless, it is worth commenting on the ambient noise. While people are supposed to be quiet and respectful in churches and in our other stops at churches in Malta, we found that to be the case, St. John’s Co-Cathedral was filled with talkers. Because of the number of people crowded in - and it was truly packed with people! - the buzz in the room sounded like a busy restaurant at peak meal time. There were a lot of large tour groups that increased the crowd size substantially.

Above the entrance to each of the nine apses, you’ll see a painting depicting a different scene from the life of St. John.

Some sort of dragon-fish-man supports the weight of the balcony above.

NC stands for Nicholas Cottoner, one of the two grandmasters (the other being his brother Raphael), who paid for the wall decorations.

Every open space along the walls is filled with paintings, gold, or other decoration.

My headset volume aside, the audio guide was informative in bringing to life the different aspects of the cathedral as we circled around all the different chapels and portions of the building. In one area, a statue was being repaired and cleaned, and it was interesting to see the painstaking detail put into just a small corner of the statue. At the rear of the church, visitors can climb the stairs (or skip this for those not wanting to climb stairs) and stand high up against the back wall of the church. From that vantage point, visitors can appreciate the space differently and get a closer look at the extensive paintings covering the ceiling. I can’t recall another large cathedral I’ve been to where there was an option to climb up like that, and I’d definitely recommend it.

Also attached to the cathedral is a museum featuring works by Caravaggio, but it was being renovated during our visit; regardless, we clearly wouldn’t have had time that morning to see it. As a famous Northern Italian painter, Michelangelo Merisi (1571–1610) was popularly known as Caravaggio, after the name of his hometown in Italy. Three years before his death in Italy, he traveled to Malta, painted his famous Beheading of St John the Baptist, which is housed at St. John’s Co-Cathedral, got into a brawl where he killed the other man, was imprisoned in Fort St. Angelo, and eventually went on the run to Sicily and Italy, where he met his demise (the cause of which is unknown). If you have studied art history at all, the painting is likely familiar to you, and you can view an image of it here.

Lindsey and I both loved these unique spiral columns which pair perfectly with the painting.

So many different types of beautiful stone and craftsmanship in just one picture. I’m not sure what it is the I love the stone in that red column!

Gold is everywhere in St. John’s Co-Cathedral.

The stonework of this marble left me in awe.

As we zipped through the Maltese countryside I managed to snap a few pictures of the less urban parts of Malta.

The Ferry from Malta to Gozo

After a mad dash to our apartment to grab our belongings and check out, we ordered an eCab to take us to the ferry, located at Cirkewwa, from where we would travel to our next stop of the trip: Gozo.

The car ride took about 40 minutes through part of Sliema (the coastal hub of commercial and social activity on Malta), and then we traveled out into the countryside where we saw the most rural part of the country so far. It’s possible our car driver was doing double duty – transporting us and also competing in a car race! We had heard and read about crazy driving in Malta but so far our drivers had been somewhat limited by city traffic. This guy was full speed ahead. The road was dotted with signs about how speed kills (Sir, these are written for you!), but these signs made no apparent impact on our driver as he rocketed down a switchback, glancing at his cell phone periodically. As you can tell, we survived.

The ferry runs pretty frequently, though changes by time of day and season so it’s best to look at the right schedule on their site here. Interestingly, you can just board the ferry from Malta without purchasing a ticket. Since it’s a guarantee that you’ll eventually return back the same way, tickets are only purchased on the return trip, outbound from Gozo. This is nice and easy and prevents the hassle of ticket purchase on this end of the trip.

Like ferries everywhere, there were different options for where to sit – inside, in the cafeteria, or scattered around the decks. We sat outside, which is always the best option for me since I get pretty significant seasickness otherwise. The ride was only 20-25 minutes, and land was always in site given the proximity of Malta to Gozo with the smaller island Comino in between. From the ferry, we could see the lighter blue of the water in Comino’s Blue Lagoon.

An interesting note for lovers of Homer's The Odyssey Gozo is the real-life location of Calypso’s Island, where Odysseus was lured and stayed for 7 years. We had only two days planned for our stay but in retrospect wouldn't have minded being lured by Calypso to pass the time away on this beautiful island!

We paralleled a friendly tour boat for a section of our ferry ride to Gozo.

The colors of the Mediterranean in contrast with the sky, clouds, and land left me taking about 50+ pictures during the ferry ride… they mostly look the same.

Pulling into Mgarr Harbor! Excitement building as we started the the Gozo stage of our adventure.

Exploring Gozo

Upon arrival in Gozo, we had contemplated either taking a taxi – eCabs, the app we had been using all trip on Malta, which is their own version of Uber, is not available on Gozo – or catching a local bus. Overwhelmed by the chaos when we arrived and having not really planned out the bus system well enough in advance, we took a cab ride, which was certainly more expensive than the bus would have been. More on this later, but the bus system on Gozo is very easy to use and has a flat cost (about 2 Euros, though varies at night and in the winter).

Our cab driver took us as close as she could get to our Airbnb, a home in the old city center of Victoria. We had a tough time finding our exact rental. The Airbnb instructions directed us to a home on the corner of two streets, but we couldn’t quite locate it. A couple of local people could tell we needed help and stopped to assist. One, a woman, went way out of her way to wander up and down streets trying to find our place, which is how we finally found it. The people of Gozo were very friendly and personable!

Victoria reminded me of Vittoriosa (also called Birgu and across the bay from Valletta) – lots of pretty, small streets, some pedestrian only – winding around in a maze. A quick note on Victoria: this city is the main central city for the island of Gozo and sits inland atop a hill. Victoria is also called Rabat, which is the Semitic word for ‘suburb’. My assumption is that it is called this because while it is larger today, it originally was a suburb of the old, walled city of Cittadella. It’s also worth noting that the city on the island of Malta next to Mdina is also Rabat.

By this point in the day, we were quite hungry and found the first available restaurant, a very casual café the was clearly a favorite of locals, called Fantasia. Dustin got the classic sandwich, and I got the chicken wrap. We each got a smoothie (strawberry and cherry) to help us cool off from the warm weather.

Near the restaurant, we discovered the main part of the city with restaurants, a square, and right there before our eyes up a steep hill – Cittadella, the old, walled city that was our destination for the afternoon. While Victoria at first seemed confusing, we quickly got our bearings and wandered around like we knew our way.

As with most places we traveled, limestone is the material of choice for houses in Victoria, Gozo.

Visiting the Walled Cittadella

This fortress city sits inland and up on a hill, a prime look-out spot for people to scan the surrounding countryside and hills. While today we can appreciate the 360 degree views from atop it for purely aesthetic reasons, it would have provided a sense of safety to earlier eras. Evidence dates human habitation on the site back to the Bronze Era with some less solid evidence suggesting Stone Age usage. The Cittadella currently on the spot dates to around the year 1500.

One of its most significant historic moments was when it was attacked by the Ottomans in 1551 (five years prior to the Siege of Malta on the larger island), and while 300 or so citizens escaped, the rest - a large group of 6,000 people - were taken by Ottomans as slaves and shipped to Tripoli. In the visitor’s center museum, we learned the story of one soldier in Gozo who killed his wife and child rather than see them enslaved before meeting his own death at the hands of the Ottomans in the fighting that ensued. It’s hard for me to imagine someone being confronted with that sort of decision. After that incident, it became law that all citizens on the island of Gozo sleep within the walls of the Cittadella for their protection. Because of the size of the island of Gozo (only about 25 square miles), the theft of 6,000 of its citizens nearly wiped the population off the map. It took 150 years for Gozo to regain the population prior to the invasion, so its easy to see what a lasting impact this had on the island.

The visitor’s center at cittadella

Along with a plethera of other artifacts, we also found a Roman Dedicatory Inscription

The Cittadella has a visitor’s center at its base. The purchase of a ticket (inside the museum) gives you access to the visitor’s center plus includes museum access to 5+ museums within the city walls. The ticket is good for 30 days, which we were happy about so that we could also use it the following day since we were getting there late in the day. You do not need to purchase a ticket to enter Cittadella. The city itself is open for people to wander and in fact has a small number of residents still. But, if you wish to visit any of the museums, the inclusive ticket is your best option.

The visitor’s center has recently been redone and provided a helpful overview of Cittadella through different lenses and its history. After exploring the small exhibit, you can enter a separate room that plays an immersive video – by immersive I mean that you stand in the center of the room, and the video plays on all the walls around – to help bring its history to life further. The visitor’s center does not require a lot of time - 30 minutes is probably sufficient for the small space - but by the time we walked out of it, we had a solid understanding of Cittadella, which helped us better interpret what we saw within its walls.

Exploring cittadella’s museums and streets

Narrow streets keep the sun at bay as you wander throughout the old city.

After the visitor’s center, we scaled the stairs to the fortress city and stopped in at a few of the museums. Our first stop was the Archaeology Museum, a small but interesting museum that probably took us about 30 minutes. Since we had visited the larger National Museum of Archaeology in Valletta a few days prior, this served as a good refresher for us and added some new Gozo-specific information. If you like archaeology and/or haven’t visited the larger archaeology museum, this is probably worth a stop.

Next, we crossed the square in front of the large Cathedral of the Assumption, which can be toured but requires its own ticket so we abstained. I didn’t make note of the ticket price but recall it was a bit pricey. After ascending the beautiful, sweeping staircase in front of the cathedral, a small path to the left carried us to the Prison Museum. This tiny museum allows visitors to explore the fortress prison, and carvings made by prisoners are visible in the limestone (as well as more modern carvings by rude tourists unfortunately).

As we continued to wander through many of the walled streets that were beautiful in their own right, we came upon our favorite museum within the Cittadella - the Gran Castello house. What is now one building was originally multiple townhouses that date to the early 16th century. This museum provides a fascinating window into the architecture of the city where it was most experienced by its inhabitants - in their own homes. The houses were hewn out of the same limestone as everything else in Malta and had stone walls and floors, as well as interior courtyards to provide fresh air and light. The houses actually felt much more part of the outdoors than we would have expected from their stone facades. While the house itself is interesting in its own right, there are also exhibits throughout that are highly variable in nature: agricultural tools and implements, recreated rooms (such as a bedroom and kitchen), and information on the local industries such as fishing.

As we explored the Cittadella, often we felt alone in this city of stone passages.

A funerary Urn along with the skeleton found inside.

A Maltese Garden within the courtyard of the Archaeology Museum of the Cittadella.

This once was the well for a family living in the Cittadella.

While much of the Cittadella has been maintained or restored, a large section of the city has remained a ruin.

Dinner at Maldondo’s Bistro

We had a delicious dinner with great ambiance at Maldonado Bistro.

The Persian Chicken disappeared quickly, Lindsey loved it!

After a quick stop at a local food market – there are only a few in the area with limited hours – to replenish our water supply given the foul taste of Maltese water, we headed to a restaurant that we had made reservations for online. We had a tough time finding what looked like really good restaurants in the area and came across Maldondo’s Bistro. We were even able to make a reservation for it while we wandered the city by using the OpenTable app. (In our experience OpenTable isn't broadly used in Malta but was in this case.)

This fresh caught Lampuki (the local name for mahi mahi) was a perfectly cooked and seasoned.

The restaurant is in a bit of a random spot down a street, so unless you knew it was there, you likely wouldn’t happen upon it. It’s housed in an old house and so has all the interesting stonework that is so common in the area. The décor, ambiance, service, and food were amazing, so we count ourselves lucky in having found a recommendation online for this spot.

We were served complimentary rustic bread of a few varieties. I don’t often eat bread before meals since I don’t want to fill up, but this was so good that I had multiple pieces! I ordered Persian Chicken, and Dustin ordered Lampuki, the local name for Mahi-mahi. Both were delicious! In perusing their online menu as I write this blog, I see that their menu has changed and appears to be seasonal, so you may find different options if you go. We both ordered dessert. Dustin had a lemon tart with orange sorbet, and I had a mulberry and pistachio cake served with a side of pistachio ice cream. Again, both were stellar. This is the type of place you go for a long, relaxing multi-course meal and leave sated.

Cittadella at Night

The Cittadella is just as impressive at night as during the day.

After a couple of hours of eating and drinking, we felt inspired to visit Cittadella at night. In fact, we weren’t even sure if we would be able to access the city after dark, but we could! Since the city is still home to residents, it is open, and so we wandered along its central square with its cathedral, along a few dimly lit – both spooky and beautiful – alleyways.

It was very windy and the breeze clunked trashcan lids and blew some water bottles that had been left on the ground, those sounds adding to the creepy feel. We went up to the top parts of the city where the walls overlook the surrounding countryside. Lights of surrounding towns and homes dotted the view. Right next to that overlook is part of the city that is in ruins, which are essentially not lit at night. Interestingly, some of the ruins date to the sacking by the Ottomans in the Middle Ages. Since the city fell into disuse around that time, most of the destruction has remained as-is for these 500 years!

Cittadella at night is beautiful, and we were accompanied by a few couples or small groups wandering through. Overall, though, it was mostly desolate and was very quiet.

As I mentioned before, Victoria has a lot of meandering streets so we just wandered home in what we thought was about the right directions, made a bunch of twists and turns, and finally found ourselves back at our rental house. It’s fun to wander like that knowing that we can never truly get lost since we’re one Google Map search away from getting back on track!