Ignore the Airbnb pushback; Choose wisely and everyone wins

 

An Airbnb in Taxco, Mexico. The owner lived next door

Should you feel guilty about staying in an Airbnb, given the pushback around the idea that they displace locals, create a shortage of housing and ruin neighborhoods once reserved for long-term residents?

Hotel industry lobbyists are winning support from city governments to restrict or eliminate Airbnbs in many places. Even consumer advocates, such as syndicated columnist Christopher Elliott, urge travelers go back to being tourists rather than "pretending" to live in a neighborhood at the expense of permanent residents."

I argued against those arguments in a recent blog post countering the assumption that Airbnb lost its way when it began opening up its listings to investors with hired managers. Some are, but many are owned by individuals supplementing their incomes by renting out a room, suite or mother-in-law apartment never intended as a full-time residence. 

 "How do you tell the difference?" a reader asked.

A classic Airbnb on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia

Making the right choice when choosing an Airbnb requires research, not only when it comes to ownership, but also the neighborhood, bottom-line price and refund policies. Do your homework, and you won't need to feel guilty about deciding on a spacious Airbnb as opposed to a tiny room in a high-priced hotel. The bonus is not only a larger, more private accommodation, but the chance for a unique cultural experience, especially if you are booking in another country,

Here's what to consider:

After searching for a listing that meets your criteria, scroll down to below the map showing the location to "Meet your host." My husband and I rented a suite in White Rock, British Columbia recently. The owner and her family lived in a house attached to the unit which appeared to have been remodeled to include a kitchen, bathroom and bedroom. The entrance was near the back of her house, and although the unit was well-equipped, I doubt that anyone would find it suitable as a full-time rental.

A typical Airbnb listing with photos. This was our White Rock Airbnb

A unit that is not owned by an individual but rather by a company that hires out the management might list their own name or the names of the same two or three different "hosts" on multiple listings. 

The studio apartment we rented a couple of years ago on Rua das Flores, the main pedestrian street in Porto, Portugal was one of several managed by the same people, a good indication that the owners were investors. The host, Sofia, confirmed she was a real estate consultant who, along with her parents, started buying up units on the street a few years ago.

The view from our Airbnb in Porto

We stayed three nights in the Airbnb and two nights in a small hotel owned and managed by a local couple. Both we lovely, but I admit I felt better about supporting the local innkeepers as opposed to the investors who likely did displace some permanent housing. 

Pricing

The initial price that appears on an Airbnb listing will not be the bottom-line price you see when you hit the "reserve" button. The initial listing will include the Airbnb service fee, but not taxes. Example: I have been looking at an Airbnb in Mexico City where the listed price was $$373 for thee nights. That jumped to $439 when I went to book and $67.12 in taxes were included. Some cities or countries have a per-day tourist tax required to be collected on-site. We discovered this in Malta last spring when the Airbnb owner left a note requesting that we leave 7 euros in cash on the kitchen table before leaving. 

Refund/Cancellation policy

Always check refund and cancellation policies which vary according to the listing. Many Airbnbs have liberal policies allowing for cancellation with a full refund up to a few days ahead of arrival. Pass on bookings that are non-refundable or return just a partial payment minus the Airbnb fees.

Check the reviews

Airbnb publishes all reviews, good or bad, from both customers and owners. Check them carefully as well as the dates they were posted. Only people who have actually stayed in the Airbnb can do a review, so there is no danger of fake postings. 

House rules and amenities 

Some hosts think of everything. Cindy, our host in White Rock, left blueberry muffins, grapes and cheese in the fridge along with half- and -half for coffee. Other hosts leave the cupboards bare except for salt and pepper. Almost all provide a code for opening the door rather than a key. Some make an effort at personal contact; others don't unless you need something. 

Coffee makers are one of the quirkiest variables. Some hosts provide easy-to-use drip machines with ground coffee; others, like Cindy, supply K-cups and a Keurig or Keurig--like coffee maker. Coffee purists tend to stock their units with complicated equipment such as elaborate espresso machines and whole bean grinders.

The most unusual non-amenity I have encountered was at an Airbnb on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia. The owner provided no indoor trash can, just an outdoor compost pile. Guests were expected to provide their own receptacle for taking coffee grounds or food to the compost pile, and pack everything else out when they left.

   

Columnist mounts case for traveling like a tourist, not a local. I disagree

 

Going local with volunteer greeter Oskar Sandoval in Mexico City

"Why you should be a tourist- not a local - when you travel," was the headline above a recent column by Christopher Elliott, a columnist who calls himself the "Travel Troubleshooter. 

Starting with upending the idea of staying in an Airbnb in a local neighborhood instead of a hotel in a tourist district, he goes on to advise hiring licensed guides instead of amateurs and resist thinking of over-crowded and expensive historic sites as "tourist traps." 

"Maybe the most ethical — and enjoyable — way to travel now is to stop pretending you live there, and embrace your status as a tourist," Elliott writes. "The problem with living like a local is simple math. "When everyone does it, no locals are left. Tourists push out the very communities they claim to love."

There is a case to be made for how over-tourism and the resulting gentrification of non-touristy areas can displace residents, inflate housing prices and drive out the butchers and bakers in favor of chic boutiques and trinket shops. 

Elliott's counter-offensive, called "In defense of the tourist trap," starts with urging people to stay in hotels rather than Airbnbs, the theory being they attract transients "pretending" to live there at the expense of permanent residents. Hotels, on the other hand, he says, are "created for visitors. They employ locals, pay commercial taxes, have security, and don’t displace families."

Next comes advice to stick to hiring licensed guides, citing a horror story from a tour operator who "got lost and nearly died of thirst" after veering from the beaten path in a jungle,

Finally, Elliott nudges travelers to embrace the well-known landmarks rather than looking at them as tourist traps.

  "There’s no shame in seeing the Eiffel Tower or the Colosseum," he writes. "These  icons are in tourist areas, and your ticket price often supports their conservation."

Do this instead

I would suggest there are better ways to travel responsibly while at the same time "becoming a (non-invading) temporary local," a phrase coined by travel guidebook author and T.V. host Rick Steves. 

Let's start with lodging. One reason most people stay in Airbnbs is to avoid sky-high hotel prices that inflate further with resort fees, parking fees and extra charges for early check-in. The other benefit is the chance to become familiar with a neighborhood outside the tourist zone, an experience that usually includes using public transportation, patronizing local restaurants and going to the grocery store.

Our Airbnb in Tasco, Mexico. Tito, the owner, lived next door

The key is to pick an Airbnb owned by a person trying to supplement their income rather than an agent who manages dozens of apartments that might otherwise be rented to local residents.

My husband and I will  be staying in the downstairs mother-in-law apartment owned by a couple in White Rock B.C. when we visit the Vancouver area soon. I'd much rather funnel my tourist dollars to them instead of a downtown hotel that charges $200 a night and $50 for parking. 

Another alternative is to pick a family-run hotel, easier when traveling in Europe than in the United States. Steves steers his followers to small hotels, often mom-and-pop businesses, located outside the main tourists zones but accessible by public transport.

When it comes to tour guides, hiring someone with a license guarantees little more than a high hourly rate.  The guide may be quite knowledgeable, or may just read from a memorized script translated from his or her language into English.

I've had much better luck and more personal experiences by spending a few hours with a greeter from the International Greeters Association, a network of volunteers from around the world who organize strolls for travelers.

Oskar was our greeter in Mexico City. We have remained in contact and see him whenever we are there.

Greeters are not tour guides, but rather temporary friends anxious to share what they love most about their city.  My husband and I have met greeters in Paris, Marseille, Japan and Mexico, and are now working on making connections in Shanghai and Chengdu, China. 

 Soufiane, a surfing instructor who moonlights as a walking tour guide for Freetour.com, was our Freetour guide in Rabat, Morocco.

Online groups such as freetour.com and guruwalk.com offer a similar services for those looking for small group walking tours, food tours or specific experiences such jogging or exploring a neighborhood's nightlife.The guides might be students, university professors or professional guides who are moonlighting. They work for tips, the amount of which is up to you. One of our most memorable walks like this was a morning spent with a GuruWalk guide in Aman, Jordan who invited the whole  group back to his home for a multi-course lunch.  

When it comes to the big sites, there is nothing wrong with seeing the Eiffel Tower or the Colosseum. First-time visitors should, but they should also budget time for alternative experiences.  

An Eatwith dinner in Mexico City

The eatwith.com program connects travelers with locals who host lunches and dinners in their homes. The site includes a brief bio, a sample menu, dates, times and prices.  We have spent long evenings with hosts in Bucharest, Paris and Mexico city - all of whom lived outside the tourist areas.  One of our best Eatwith experiences was a visit to a farm outside of Hanoi which included a tour by the owner, and a short cooking class at her house followed by a lunch.

In the kitchen with Mandy, our Eatwith host in Hanoi

Becoming a "temporary local" without disturbing the local way of life can be as easy as visiting the same cafe twice. One of our favorite parts about staying in Nyaung Shwe, a town on Lake Inle in Myanmar, was becoming regulars at the tea house down the street. The town has plenty of tourist places where you can get a good cappuccino, but we became addicted to Burmese tea served with sweetened condensed milk. We sipped ours while seated at low tables on child-sized plastic stools below a picture of a golden Buddha image sitting on a pile of money.  

Starbucks Not. Sipping tea in Myanmar

 

Malta in the Mediterranean: Tourists discover the little country that could

 

You're never far from the water in Malta, the EU's smallest country sits by itself in the middle of the Mediterranean

How is it that a Mediterranean island most Americans could not find on a map earns the distinction of an over-crowded, heavily congested country with the highest tourism density in Europe?

An how does a travel writer who aims to avoid beaches and touristy travel not only end up there, but leaves impressed with its culture, history and culinary traditions?

Tell friends in the U.S. that you are going to Malta, and the response will likely be a blank look or a polite "Where exactly is that?''  

Italians, Brits, Germans and Russian need no help finding the handful of tiny islands in the middle of the Mediterranean sea between Sicily in Italy and Tunisia in North Africa.

They know the European Union's smallest country (122 square miles) well as a quick weekend getaway, thanks to discounted flights from dozens of cities.

Move aside islands in Greece, Spain and Portugal. Malta topped the charts as Europe's most over crowded tourist spot in recent New York Post story analyzing the size of European island destinations in comparison to the number of tourists hosted.

Consider that Rhode Island, our smallest state is 10 times larger than Malta, yet Malta records more than four million tourists annually, roughly 6 to 8 tourists for every resident (population 575,000). 

As anti-tourism movements pick up in overcrowded cities such as Venice and Barcelona, could Malta be next? 

An Instagram site called Overtouristedmalta sends out viral videos showing crowded streets in the capital of Valletta, traffic jams and long lines at popular attractions.

All of this is no doubt true in the peak summer season when thousands of Europeans crowd the beach resorts by day and Valletta's nightclubs and bars by night.

Not knowing any of this, my husband, Tom, and I discovered a different side of Malta, almost by default. We visited in April when it was too cool for the beaches, but an excellent time to wander Valletta's steep, mostly-pedestrianized streets without the crowds, and learn about the country's religious and military history dating from Arab rule in the 11th century through the Crusades and World War II. 

"Where Arabia Meets Europe" is how Saudi Aramco World Magazine described Malta in its January issue. A confluence of cultures - Greek, Roman, Arabic, Sicilian, Spanish, French and British - gifted Malta with a blend of culinary traditions, architecture and a semitic language in the same family as Arabic and Hebrew, with phrases adapted from French and Italian. 

After stumbling on another article titled  "There's more to Malta than Beaches," we planned a a six-day stopover on our way to Bari in Italy to visit friends.    

Getting a handle on Malta's geography is tricky. Malta is the name of the main island as well as the country. It includes five islands in all, three inhabited, dominated by steep limestone cliffs indented by bays, inlets, and coves. Deciding where to base ourselves was the first challenge.

Besides the beach resort community of Sliema, the most obvious choice is Valletta, the European Union's smallest capital, built as a hilltop fortress by the Knights of St. John, a Catholic brotherhood of noblemen who fought off Muslim invaders in the 16th century. 

Unfairly maligned by viral visuals on "Overtouristed Malta's" Instagram site showing overcrowded streets, congested walkways and traffic, Valletta is a unique walled city built entirely of golden limestone, reachable 200 feet above the seafront via  hundreds of stairs or a 26-second elevator ride for one euro.

Steps leading from the seafront to the the top of Valletta

Hidden inside the walls is a rich collection of 16th century Baroque palaces, churches, monasteries and gardens built by the Knights. Museums, hotels, galleries and cafes line steps that double as "streets" in areas that are mostly-pedestrianized.

After looking for places to stay in Valletta and finding them either booked or expensive, we decided to base ourselves in quieter and less-congested Birgu, a fortified city on the southern side of Malta's Grand Harbour, directly across from Valletta.

A bit of history: Malta was part of the Kingdom of Sicily until 1530, when Holy Roman Emperor Charles V leased the archipelago to the Knights of St. John who, at the time, were escaping the Ottoman invasion of Greece. When the Knights arrived, they chose Birgu on the waterfront as their base rather than the 8th century inland capital of Mdina. Birgu served as Malta's de facto capital until the establishment of Valletta in 1571, when the Knights and Maltese civilians halted the Ottoman expansion in the Mediterranean, and built a new city named for the Knights' grand master Jean Parisot de Valette. 

The walled entrance to Birgu

Birgu and two other towns (together referred to as the Three Cities) are connected to Valletta by land, but public ferries and private boatmen make short-cutting along the water faster and more pleasant than taking the bus.

Private boats make the crossing between Birgu and Valletta when the ferries are full or not running

Our Airbnb ($130 per night) was an air conditioned apartment in a renovated 300-year-old townhouse in a neighborhood of mostly pedestrianized streets where residents decorate the exteriors of their homes with brightly painted enclosed wooden and glass balconies, an Arab-influenced architectural feature that provides a sense of privacy for those who want to look out but not necessarily be seen. 

Staying in Birgu felt like living in a small village compared to bustling Valletta. We woke to the sound of church bells playing "Ave Maria" each morning, and became regulars at Cafe Riche, a neighborhood breakfast spot which served Tuna ftira, Maltese bread slathered with a tomato paste and topped with tuna, olives, olive oil, capers, goat cheese and sun-dried tomato.

A breakfast of Tuna ftira

Birgu's Fort Angelo

Tour groups come to Birgu for the day to explore Fort St. Angelo, a bastioned fortress at the tip of the peninsula, once the Knights' military headquarters, now a museum.

By late afternoon, with the tour groups gone, the few cafes on the main square cater to locals. English co-exists with Maltese as the official language, so it was easy to strike up a conversation with women at the bus stop, or people in a crowd gathered one evening to hear speeches by political candidates running for office.  

Birgu also happened to be the best location to view the Malta International Fireworks Festival, usually held after Easter, to mark the start of the summer fireworks season. 

The country has deep pyrotechnic traditions dating to the time of the Knights who celebrated military victories and important religious events with gunpowder displays. 

This year's festival finale, capped by 1,000 -drone show, happened while we were there. Tickets were already sold out for viewing areas with seating, but our Airbnb was within walking distance of a long pier where we joined locals who came with picnics, beer and chairs for a show that lasted more than two hours.

Food, churches and tunnels

A British colony during World War II, and still part of the British Commonwealth, Malta was key to the Allied defense of the Mediterranean. During bombing by the Axis powers, inhabitants took shelter in the secret underground cisterns and tunnels dug by the Knights to store water and food. 

The result is an entire city beneath the streets which visitors can explore on a walking tour with the Malta National Community Art Museum. Wearing hard hats and head lamps, we walked in the dark for an hour, passing by small rooms residents rented as emergency shelters.  

A religious plaque on a wall inside one of the tunnels

The Roman Catholic religion plays an important part in Maltese daily life. Many of its churches are baroque masterpieces. St. John‘s Co-Cathedral, built from limestone by the Knights in 1573, is covered floor to ceiling with inlaid tile work, gold, statuary and paintings including the Beheading of St. John the Baptist by Caravaggio, the largest canvas he painted and the only one he signed. 

Caravaggio's painting inside St. John's Co-Cathedral

Tombs of high-ranking Knights in St. John's Co-Cathredral are decorated with tiles depicting battle scenes

Laundry day

No, we didn‘t hit the jackpot at a casino. We went by ferry in Birgu to the laundromat in Valletta. Washers take only 1 euro or 50-cent coins. You insert a 20e bill in a machine, and it spits out 40 50-cent coins. 

Waiting for the laundry to finish was an excuse to have breakfast at the Museum Cafe with its marble tables and Maltese specialties. It's true that many restaurants cater to British tourists' appetites for fish and chips, but a robust culinary landscape awaits those willing to dive deeper into the island's flavors.

The Museum Cafe in Valletta

The national snack is pastizz, filo dough pastries filled with ricotta or mushy peas (A British favorite), sold from street corner windows for 50 cents each. At the Museum Cafe, we breakfasted on hobż biż-zejt, a classic Maltese sandwich made with crusty sourdough bread rubbed with ripe tomatoes, drizzled with olive oil, and topped with tuna, capers, onions, and olives. The national beverage is Kinnie, an orange-colored bittersweet carbonated soft drink flavored with bitter oranges and aromatic herbs.

There used to be a chocolate district in Valletta, but it‘s no more. There is, however, an excellent chocolate shop called the Chocolate District  where it's never to early for an orange-chocolate Martini. 

A love letter to Southern Italy: People rather than big sites reward visitors

 

Pasta-making at Agriturismo Regio Tratturo

Big sites and important museums are few in rural Campania, a Southern Italian region dotted with hilltop towns, known for their "cocina povera," traditional peasant food familiar to many Americans.

The reward for a long drive along a winding road past pastures dotted with wind turbines might be a stay at a farmhouse inn where the owners roll out sheets of fresh pasta on the dining room table, and tempt their guests with homemade cakes for breakfast.

Always a steep climb in the hill town of Greci

Perhaps you will visit a 15th-century hilltop village such as Greci, the town where my grandfather was born in 1901. And if it's a Sunday, you might snag reservations for a three-hour lunch at a countryside winery.

Pizza-making at CorteCorbo Winery

It might sound like a cliché to call this the "real Italy" but those words define a part of the country so far untouched by the crushing crowds in cities such as Rome and Florence.

If this sounds like your kind of travel, then take a train to the nearest small town that has a car rental agency, and spend a few days exploring between visits to more well-known areas.

Family connections draw my husband and I off-the-beaten path almost each time we visit Italy. 

Our first visits were to towns in Sicily, Calabria and Campania where Tom's grandparents were born. This spring, we made our fourth visit to Greci, the town my grandfather, Nicolas Pucci, left at age two when his parents followed uncles, cousins, brothers and sisters to Canton, Ohio to seek work in the brick factories.

A statue in Greci honoring war hero Skanderbeg 

A statue in Greci's town square honors George Skanderbeg, an  Albanian nobleman and military leader who answered a call to help the Italians defeat French-supported Insurrectionists in the 15th century. Seeking to escape the Ottoman invasion of Albania, the Catholic soldiers accepted an offer from the King of Naples to relocate in 51 towns scattered throughout Italy.

The communities call themselves "Arbereshe,'' and preserve an ancient Albanian-Italian dialect still taught in some schools with government grants to support cultural awareness.

This sign in Greci welcomes visitors in English and Abereshe

Our first stop is always a visit with Rita Di Minno, 79, a native of Greci who lived for a while in Australia. As an English speaker, she serves as the unofficial ambassador to American visitors, welcoming many into her home to look at books and pictures about the history of Greci.

Rita outside her home in Greci

The  population is declining (down to 400 from around 700 two years ago), as it is in small towns all over Italy. A bed and breakfast and small restaurant closed recently, leaving just the pharmacy, two churches, an ATM and a bar that serves pizza on Saturdays and Sundays.

Many of the houses are owned by Italians from other parts of Italy, Ukrainian refugees and a few Americans ex-pats who have come to explore their roots. While walking around, we met John Pastor from Akron, Ohio, whose  great-grandparents were born here. He and his wife live part-time in the two-story, two-bathroom home they bought for $55,000. 

John Pastor from Akron, Ohio 

It was John's mother's first cousin, John Mazzarella of Florida, who founded an organization called Greci Cousins. With John's help, my family and others traced our ancestry to one of 15 original Albanian families who settled here. Although we know of no direct relatives, everyone is considered a "cousin" because people in the town mostly married each other.

"There are many people with the name Pucci here," John told me. "You are in good company."

A close friend from your home town, who is not a direct relative, is called a paisan -  a fellow countryman or compatriot.

At home near Greci with Maria and Dante

Two of our favorite paisans are Maria Castielli and her husband, Dante Molinario who live 30 minutes from Greci in nearby Ariano Irpino. Maria's mother was born in Greci, but Maria was raised in England so speaks fluent English as does Dante who worked for a while in Toronto.

They generously welcome us into their home for dinner when we visit. In the past, they shared homemade prosciutto from a pig they killed themselves and wild asparagus from their garden. This time, Maria prepared an antipasta called “Cheat Pizza,” pizza dough on the bottom filled with tomato sauce and cheese and topped with a flaky pastry. Dante made us a special pasta with their homemade tomato sauce and pork sausage. They don't kill pigs anymore, but they preserve their own peppers, olives, asparagus, tomato sauce, all stored in huge basement pantry.

Dante serves the pasta 

Maria with her Cheat Pizza

Our home base for a three-day stay in the area was Agriturismo Regio Tratturo, a farmhouse inn reached along a narrow, winding road, once a path used by shepherds to move herds and flocks from one pasture to another. Today the hillside are dotted with wind turbines and olive groves. 

The view from Agriturismo Regio Tratturo

The delightful owner, Antonietta, takes care of four rooms and a restaurant where everything on the menu is homemade from ingredients grown or raised by she and her husband, Rinaldo and their staff. They host large groups for weddings and birthdays. When we checked in, they were busy making fresh pasta on the dining table for 50 guests coming the next day.

Antonietta her ciambella

"Sweet or savory," Antonietta would ask us about what type of breakfast we would prefer. If we said savory, then an omelette would appear along with fresh bread, jam, homemade peach juice and little biscotti cookies. 

A choice of "sweet" one morning produced slices of a ciambella, a Campanian-style breakfast bundt cake flavored with Strega, a sweet, yellow herbal liqueur made in nearby Benevento.

Irpina in the province of Avelino is this area's wine region. Although not as big or well-known as Tuscany, its mountains and volcanic soils help a scattering of family-owned wineries produce three out of four of Campania's DOCG (Controlled and Guaranteed Designation of Origin) wines. 

Looking for something to do on Sunday when almost everything is closed, we found CorteCorbo Winery in the town of Castelfranci, 35 miles from Ariano.

On Sundays, the winemaker, Antonia Romano and her son, Antonio, host a three-hour lunch and tour at the house that belonged to her grandfather. 

After a GPS mix-up that took us down a one-lane road to a bridge that was closed, we recovered, and after an hour and half's worth of driving, arrived at noon to find the outside terrace filled with guests, including a group of Americans stationed at a naval base in Naples. 

In between pours of their six wines made from three varieties of local grapes, we snacked on an antipasti spread of roasted pumpkin, cheeses, eggplant parmesan  and salami while Antonia taught everyone how to stretch dough and make pizzas.

Antipasti on the terrace

Antonia supervises the  pizza-making

Tom readies a pizza for the wood-fired oven

It was around 2 p.m. when we finally gathered in the dining room for a sit-down dinner. Antonio played and sang "Country Roads" on his guitar while we toasted our hosts, and stayed until 4 p.m  enjoying pasta, meatballs and tiramisu. 

New friends and a view of Castelfranci from CorteCorbo winery

Is it a cliché to call this the "real Italy," especially with so many English-speaking Americans around? Perhaps, but I prefer to remember it as special Sunday in the Italian countryside with generous hosts and new friends. It doesn't get much more real than that.  

Malta in the Mediterranean: Where Arabia meets Europe

 

Built from limestone, Malta's capital city of Valletta glows in the Mediterranean sun 

We're not beach people. Nor are we all that interested in military history.

So why will we be soon visiting Malta, a handful of tiny islands in the Mediterranean between Sicily in Italy and Tunisia in North Africa? It‘s a country mainly known for its summer resorts, its history as a strategic military site during World War II, and the place where Catholic crusaders defeated the Islamic Ottoman Empire in the 1500s.

Our decision started with a search for a new destination to explore with convenient connections to Bari in Southern Italy where we plan to visit friends in the town where my grandfather was born. 

A Ryanair flight to Bari from the Maltese capital of Valletta popped up on Google Flights around the same time I spotted an article titled "There's more to Malta than Beaches."

"Where Arabia Meets Europe" is how Saudi AramcoWorld Magazine described Malta in its February issue. A confluence of cultures - Greek, Roman, Arabic, Sicilian, Spanish, French and British - gifted Malta with a blend of culinary traditions, architecture and a semitic language in the same family as Arabic and Hebrew, with phrases adapted from French and Italian. 

I booked the Ryanair flight.

Malta in the middle of the Mediterranean

Getting a handle on Malta's geography is tricky. The country includes five islands, three inhabited, dominated by steep limestone cliffs indented by bays, inlets, and coves. Deciding where to base ourselves for six nights was the first challenge

The most obvious choice is Valletta, the European Union's smallest capital filled with 16th century Baroque-style buildings built by the Knights of St. John, a Catholic brotherhood, founded in Amalfi, Italy in 1048. Called the Knights Hospitaller, they originally provided a nursing hospital for sick pilgrims in Jerusalem, but later took on a military role fighting Muslim invaders during the Crusades. 

Following the reconquest of the Holy Land by Islamic forces, the Knights moved on to Greece where they were later expelled by the Ottomans. Searching for a new base, they accepted an offer from Roman Emperor Charles V to occupy isolated and sparsely-populated Malta for the price of a single Maltese falcon.

The backstreets of Birgu

The Knights settled in Birgu, a city on a peninsula stretching out across the harbor. Following the1565 Great Siege when the Knights and Maltese civilians successfully halted the Ottoman expansion in the Mediterranean, the Knights' leader, Jean de Valette, set out to build a new heavily-fortified city across the harbor from Birgu to be called Valletta. 

Built entirely of golden limestone, it developed into a center of Baroque architecture, featuring grand churches, monasteries and gardens. 

St. John's Co-Cathedral, a Baroque showpiece built by the Knights of St. John in 1573.

After looking for places to stay in Valletta and finding them either booked or expensive, we  decided to base ourselves in quieter and less-congested Birgu. Our Airbnb ($130 per night) is  an air conditioned apartment in a  renovated 300-year-old townhouse  a short ferry or bus ride across the water from Valleta. Pictured below is the exterior of the apartment with a gallarija, a traditional Maltese enclosed wooden balcony, an Arabic-inspired feature designed to offer with privacy, ventilation, and a view of the street.

Birgu also happens to be the best location to view the Malta International Fireworks Festival, usually held after Easter, to mark the start of the summer fireworks season. The country has deep pyrotechnic traditions dating to the time of the Knights who celebrated military victories and important religious events with gunpowder displays. This year's festival finale, capped by 1,000 drone show, will be happening while we are there. Tickets are already sold out for viewing areas with seating, but our Airbnb is right next door, so it looks like we will have front-row seats by default.

Airbnb in Birgu's Medieval quarter

Buildings with Arab-style enclosed balconies 

We hope to explore other areas beyond the usual guidebook recommendations with the help of a few walking tours and a 7-day bus pass good for unlimited rides on Malta's excellent transportation network. We'll use an Airbnb Experiences' three-hour street food tour to get acquainted with Maltese cuisine, and plan to visit the main food hall called-Suq Tal-Belt, Suq, taken from the Arabic word for "marketplace." .

Traditional Maltese coffee is blended with chicory, ground cloves and aniseed

Bloggers with YouTube videos point visitors to local neighborhoods within walking distance of  Valletta. One is Hamrun, a neighborhood the AramcoWorld story described as a multicultural mix of immigrants, ones who have lived here for decades and those who can trace their lineage back centuries. Here, the story said, visitors will find  "a pan-African shop of goods called Inshallah Mini market is sandwiched between a Catholic church and an Afghan restaurant. Just a few blocks down, past a diner sporting American flags and the Australian butcher, is a Syrian-owned nut shop." 

As for our Ryanair flight to Bari, there's a risk it could be cancelled due to fuel shortages caused by the U.S. war with Iran. There are other flights, so the worst that could happen is that we would have to an extra day in this surprising country. Maybe even hit the beach.