Mdina sits on the highest hill in Malta, so on a clear day you can see all the way to the sea from its walls. People chose this spot a long, long time ago because being high up made the town easier to spot visitors approaching and easier to defend from strong winds.
Inside the walls, the streets are very narrow and twisty. They were built that way on purpose - narrow lanes keep the houses cool in the hot Maltese summer, because the sun can barely reach down between the buildings. Walking through is like walking inside a long, shady tunnel.
Because there are hardly any cars, you can hear things you would never hear in a busy city - cats yawning, the click of horses' hooves on the stones, a piano floating down from someone's window. A few horse-drawn carriages take visitors around at a slow trot. That is the loudest traffic Mdina gets.
Mdina is so still and beautiful that filmmakers love it. Famous TV shows and films have been shot in its streets. Locals say you sometimes turn a corner in the morning and there are dragons or knights being filmed against a thousand-year-old wall.