2 Best Sights in Mdina and Rabat, Malta

Catacombs run under much of Rabat. Up Saint Agatha Street from Parish Square, the Catacombs of St. Paul are clean of bones but full of carved-out burial troughs and feature the most comprehensive information on the rituals of the city's underground world, including why each tomb is a different shape. St. Agatha's Crypt and Catacombs, farther up the street, were beautifully frescoed between 1200 and 1480, then defaced by Turks in 1551. Back on the square lies arguably the most impressive surviving tunnel area, the Wignacourt Complex, which includes St. Paul's Grotto—believed to be the site where the apostle St. Paul lived during his time in Malta. This labyrinthine network of burial chambers here dates from Punic times and holds one surprise: just below it is a series of World War II bomb shelters (some 50 rooms) carved by hand from an existing water cistern dug centuries earlier by the Knights of the Order of St. John. The Wignacourt museum upstairs houses reliquaries, relics, and paintings by Mattia Preti.

The Romans arrived in Malta on their way to Carthage and swept across the island in 218 BC, finding little resistance from the Carthaginians. This house, built for a Roman aristocrat, dates from the late 1st century BC and is one of the only substantial finds from an era when Mdina was known as Melite. It was discovered by accident in 1881 by workers, though a good portion of its grounds was lost to over-zealous road-building by the British services. What survives are some spectacular mosaics and the only set of marble statues portraying Emperor Claudius and his family.