The Republic of Malta is an island country, located on an archipelago of islands in the beautiful Mediterranean Sea. Situated between Sicily and Africa, it has always been a very important spot in terms for the political and military aspirations of the region’s megapowers. Right now, Malta has around 0.5 million citizens and a warm Mediterranean climate. The capital is Valletta and here are 7 more things you should know before you go to Malta!
It’s a great way to set up a business
Although it’s a small island-nation, Malta is home to more than 96,000 unique companies, corporations and enterprises. Every day, 25 new businesses are opened. That’s a lot for such a small country!
Due to lenient and attractive tax system, many companies are opting to open a subsidiary or a holdings company in Malta. It’s labelled as a tax haven and attracts more and more prosperous commercial entities from Europe and other countries with a heavier tax burden.
Ride-pooling and taxis are the quickest way to get around
Since it is an island, Malta is an ideal place to get to by boat or plane. But, once you’re in Malta, taxi’s and ride-pools become the ideal and optimal choice of transport. Malta has a decent public transport system, but the routes and timetables aren’t too great. That’s probably why taxis to the airport are a highly sought-after service. Whether locals are commuting to work or if tourists are trying to reach a destination, shared and private rides are definitely the favourite choice for transport.
Malta has a strong knightly heritage
For many centuries, the island of Malta was the centre and most important hub of Knights of St. John’s order (Knights Hospitaller). They inhabited the island and made it, at least culturally, a part of Europe and helped integrate the local population into the art and culture of the Old Continent. When the order was powerful, Malta prospered, but towards the end of the 18th century, the French drove them out and ended a long chapter in the island’s vivid history.
People here are mostly bilingual or even trilingual
For a long time in the recent history, Malta was under the influence of United Kingdom. This is why the nation has two official languages: Maltese and English. However, due to its close geographic proximity to Italy, it comes as no surprise that a lot of Maltese nationals speak Italian.
Malti – the local language is unique
Malti or the Maltese language is a unique language. It’s written in a Latin script (Latin characters) whilst being a part of Semitic languages family (Arabic, Hebrew, Amharic, etc.). The language of Malta has been influenced by English, Italian and Arabic and has words from almost all of these languages. Foreigners say it’s super hard to learn!
Small island with churches for every day of the year
Official data suggests that Malta has 359 churches. This means that a group of islands with only a tad over a half of a million of people can visit a new church every day, for a whole year!
The numbers mean that there is a church in every square kilometer of the island, which would be crazy to try and imagine in other countries, right?
Maltese people are mostly active Catholics. Christianity is something that locals take very seriously.
Maltese people love breaking odd records
Besides being a tourist destination, Malta also has to do other things in order to stand out. One things that locals do better than probably any other nation around the globe is breaking odd and unique records which hover around the border of bizarre.
For example, Albert Rizzo treaded water for 72 hours and 3 minutes in the sea. Malta holds the record for the world’s largest Catherine Wheel, and also the longest dining table which measured at a whopping 359 meters along!
