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Every day at noon, cannons fire from the 16th century Saluting Battery overlooking Fort St Angelo and Valletta’s Grand Harbour. Once the heavy thuds subside, Vera Lynn’s sentimental melodies crackle from speakers and fade into plumes of smoke.
Steeped in nostalgia and revelling in past pomp and glory, Valletta is the jewel in Malta’s antique crown, attracting almost two million tourists a year. But today, as I walk around fortifications built by the Knights of St John, a ruling military and religious order who rose from the Crusades it’s refreshingly quiet. The only cruise ship in port departed yesterday, leaving a handful of foreigners to admire the ramparts in peace.