Valletta was built almost 500 years ago, all in one go, by a group of builders called the Knights of Malta. They drew the city as a tidy grid of straight streets running up and down the hill. That was very modern for the time - most old cities just grew in a tangle. From above, Valletta looks like a piece of graph paper.
Every building in the city is made from a soft, honey-coloured stone called Globigerina limestone, which is dug up from quarries on the island. When the sun shines on it - and the sun shines a lot in Malta - the whole city seems to glow yellow and gold.
Many of the houses have wooden balconies that stick out over the street, painted bright green, red or blue. They are called 'gallariji', and families have used them for hundreds of years to watch the street, chat with neighbours and catch the breeze. Some streets are so steep they have steps instead of pavements.
The whole city is on UNESCO's World Heritage list, which means the world has agreed to protect it. Children still go to school there, families still live there, and bakeries still sell warm pastries from little hatches in the wall.