A Surprise Carnival Experience in Valletta

We decided to go to Malta for the most random of reasons: there was a RyanAir sale, it wasn’t too far away and it had a decent chance of not being freezing cold in February. I was so preoccupied with stressing out about my immigration appointment that I didn’t bother to plan anything beyond an AirBnB in Valletta until the night before.

Luckily Malta is a really easy country to navigate: it’s tiny and almost everyone speaks English. And luck was on our side.

Carnival celebrates the beginning of Lent, and was supposed to be the week prior to our visit. We attended a small children’s carnival in Bologna which Marcella loved and Leo hated.

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Apparently Valletta’s carnival was rained out and rescheduled for the weekend of our visit. And unlike Bologna, Valletta goes all out with elaborate costumes, dance routines and neon floats:

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It was the perfect Carnival experience: loud and flashy without being overly crowded or rowdy.  It was just fun! And of course my little extraverted girl loved it:

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She kept on dancing even as we carted her away from the action to bed. Party animal.

We saw and did many other things on our long weekend in Malta, but this was definitely the most memorable bit!

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About Me

I’m a girl who can’t sit still. After nearly a decade of flitting around the world as a professional blogger and travel writer, I’ve settled into expat life in Bologna, Italy. I have a handsome husband, a floppy dog, and the best two year old in the world.

I blog professionally at Why Wait To See the World, and unprofessionally right here.