Mdina - the silent city!

An old capital of Malta, Mdina is a medival walled city located on the hill overlooking the island. It's well preserved example of walled city in europe.   As the name implies in Arabic, Mdina is precisely located on the centre of Malta.  The history of this tiny city traces back to 4000 years ago. A UNESCO heritage site, Mdina is populated by churches, palaces and gracious houses with large squares and is delightfully a car-free-zone experience.  Home for not more than 300 people, there's a limited vehicle access to some residents.  

                                                          First look of Mdina from the road 

While doing a pre-tour study about Malta in one of the travel books, I read that Mdina should be visited at night.  Hence we planned to spend around half the day there.

Grabbed our subway sandwich on the way, we reached Mdina around 2.00pm. Although the city was dotted with ample car parking spaces, there wasn't any space to leave my little hired car. The place was pouring with tourists.  I roamed around for good 30 minutes before I competed with another carwala and progressed to park into the tiny space!  There are frequent buses that connect Mdina to the major cities, and the journey takes about 30-45 minutes.  

Before we got into the walled city, little did we know that we are going to have a lifetime experience.  The city welcomed us by a beautiful baroque entrance designed by some French architect which spread on the sides with defensive walls.  

What we saw once we entered was breathtaking.  The place was spotlessly clean, beautiful, charming, full of history! We wandered through the narrow "maze like alleys" endlessly without knowing the direction.  All the streets looks so similar, but still we clicked pictures in every lane posing crazily.  We decided to play hide and seek and actually got lost. For about 20 minutes, what started as a game, made us roam around to find each other..did made me a bit panic :(

Narrow alleys

After the "thank-god-I-found-you-jaanam" session, we started over our debate as to which lane was featured in Hosanna Song (tamil version).  After a lengthy argument, we were too tired, and went to Fontanella Tea Gardens - a tastefully decorated cafe with sweeping views of the island (which is also featured in the song). But remember, this is the only cafe inside the city (I think so!), so there's always crowd.  Goes without saying, waiting time is also a bit more.  But that's totally worth it!!

Some of the houses and lanes inside Mdina

We enjoyed our Maltese cheese cake and a cup of tea over the stunning views.  There are some souvenir shops which are a bit expensive, but the collections were amazing.  When there's flooding tourist, there's always a trap! "The Mdina experience" is an audio-visual presentation about Malta's history from past to present.  Certainly, it's worth avoiding.  

                                      Another cute and colorful corner

These houses have colored doors and windows like any other maltese houses, and unique door knobs - like the face of lion, fish, or horse or anything.
After our wee shopping, we continued our walk.  After a sunny day, it started to get bit chill as the sun went down.  The skies turned blue, and the alleys were lit turning the limestone into a shining golden.  So true that the streets were even more beautiful with dim lights.

 St.Paul Cathedral at night

We reached St.Paul's Cathedral. Interestingly the face of the cathedral has 2 clocks - one for time and another for date.  It was also said that one clock showed right time, and another one showing wrong time which serves to confuse the devil!! 

Anyways, it was time for us to pack up and leave back to our hotel.  We both loved this place so much, that bidding a farewell was so difficult. The medival alleys were timeless beauty, an experience so rich as its history, and I will treasure them throughout my life.  While there are 100 things to do in Malta, I would put "Visiting Mdina" as the top most not-to-be-missed-place; A gem of Malta!!