A Maltese Village Festa

The Maltese festa is one of Europe's most exuberant religious celebrations, and it has been happening in essentially the same form for over five centuries. Every parish in Malta — and there are 67 parishes on an island of 316 square kilometres — has its own patron saint, its own feast day, and its own tradition of celebration that involves fireworks, brass bands, decorated streets, illuminated church facades, and enormous papier-mache statues of the patron saint carried through the streets on the shoulders of the devout.

The fireworks are the most extraordinary element. Maltese pyrotechnics is a craft tradition of frightening skill and competitive intensity: the village fireworks factories produce displays of such complexity and duration that visiting pyrotechnicians from around the world come specifically to study them. The petarda (ground fireworks) shake the ground. The aerial shells leave coloured afterimages on the retina. The whole thing lasts from dusk until well past midnight and is entirely free to attend.

Valletta itself — the world's smallest national capital, built by the Knights Hospitaller in the 16th century — is a Baroque fortress city of extraordinary architectural density. The Co-Cathedral of St John contains Caravaggio's largest painting and two of his finest works. The National War Museum, the Casa Rocca Piccola, and the Upper Barrakka Gardens all reward time. Eat ftira (Maltese bread) with bigilla (broad bean paste) and kapunata (caponata) for lunch; rabbit stew for dinner. Malta is small enough to tour in a day but profound enough to absorb weeks.