Italy and Malta

The central Mediterranean has been a crossroads since farmers crossed from Sicily to Malta around 5900 BCE. Greeks settled southern Italy and Sicily, Phoenicians and Carthaginians traded through Malta, and Rome eventually absorbed all of it.

After Rome fell, the region split. Byzantines, Lombards, Arabs and Normans took pieces; Sicily and Malta shared rulers for centuries, which is why Maltese food and place names echo Sicilian ones. Venice and Genoa built sea empires that reached far beyond Italy.

Malta's harbour made it a prize for the Knights of St John, Napoleon and Britain in turn, while mainland Italy remained a patchwork of kingdoms, duchies and the Papal States until the 19th century.

Italian unification (1859–1870) swept up almost every state on the peninsula. Two survived inside it. San Marino, tiny and poor, had sheltered Garibaldi and was left alone by treaty in 1862. The Pope lost Rome in 1870 but refused to accept it, a stand-off resolved only by the 1929 Lateran Treaty that created Vatican City.

Malta was never part of Italy. British from 1800, it became independent in 1964, and Italian nationalist claims on it in the Fascist era were never realised.

The result is two enclaves with open borders and one island nation 90 km south of Sicily — all now using the euro and inside, or effectively inside, the Schengen area.

All four countries are Catholic by tradition, and the Vatican sits at the centre. Pilgrim routes, saints' days and processions shape the calendar from Rome to Gozo.

Malta keeps Catholicism as the state religion and has the region's most intense village festas; Italy dropped its state religion in 1984 but still closes cities for patron saints; San Marino's founder is also its patron saint; and the Vatican is the Church's government.

For travellers the shared rules are the dress code in churches, Holy Week and Christmas crowds, and closures on religious holidays across all four.

Italy's high-speed network, built since the 2000s, turned Rome–Florence into 1 h 35 and Milan–Rome into three hours, and made rail the default between the big cities. Two companies — state Trenitalia and private Italo — compete on the same tracks.

The enclaves hang off that network: the Vatican is a metro stop in Rome, and San Marino a bus from Rimini on the Adriatic line. Malta is off the rail map entirely: flights from Rome, Milan and Catania, or the fast ferry from Pozzallo in Sicily.

The weak links are the south's slower regional lines, island ferries in winter, and strikes that are announced in advance.

Italy and Malta are among Europe's most visited places, and the 2020s brought record numbers. Cities responded with rules: Venice's day-visitor fee on peak days, tour-group caps and rental limits; Rome's €2 charge to reach the Trevi basin; Florence's limits on new short-term lets; Malta's higher environmental contribution; and timed entry at almost every major sight.

The pressure is uneven. Venice, Florence, Rome's centre, the Amalfi Coast and Comino's Blue Lagoon feel it most; San Marino and much of the south and Malta's winter season have room to spare.

The practical answer is the same everywhere: travel in April–June or September–October, sleep in the places you want to see at their best, and book timed sights before anything else.