Though Valletta is Malta’s capital, by world standards, this is a tiny city of just 55.5 hectares. Even so, it packs a lot of history and culture in. UNESCO counts Valletta, and its 320 monuments, as one of the most concentrated historic areas in the world. Founded by the European military engineers, the Knights of St. John, in the 1500s, the city’s architecture mostly dates from a little later: the baroque era of the late 16th century and the neoclassical era of the 18th century. The warm waters of the Mediterranean are as beautiful as they’ve always been.