A new book from Frommers includes Malta in the top ten out of 500 extraordinary islands one would most want to visit –or perhaps stay on forever! The 500 islands themselves were shortlisted from thousands.
Malta: Crossroads of the Mediterranean
Walking the streets of most any Maltese town, you get the vague
sense that you’re in some kind of greatest hits of European architecture
— a little London here, echoes of Paris there, maybe a touch of Rome in
that baroque church facade. And it’s no wonder: the Phoenicians, the
Carthaginians, the Romans, the knights of St. John, the French, and the
British all swept in from their respective compass points and left
indelible reminders of their conquests. Malta today is a modern and
well-run island nation, with its illustrious laurels of history on full
view. The walled city of Mdina, on Malta proper, is superbly evocative
of the island’s medieval era. Descendants of the noble families —
Norman, Sicilian, and Spanish — that ruled Malta centuries ago still
inhabit the patrician palaces that line the shady streets here. In
summer, the coastal resort towns of Sliema and St. Julian’s, just
outside Valletta, come alive with holidaymakers and yacht-setters, and
the cafe-filled promenades fronting the teal sea are the epitome of the
Mediterranean good life.
Source: External link to Frommers