When the wind comes in off the harbour and the limestone turns to a skating rink, you need indoor places that hold up for hours. The good news is that Valletta is built for bad weather. The streets are narrow enough to break the wind, the buildings are stone-thick, and there is almost always somewhere warm within thirty seconds of where you are standing. Here are the indoor rooms in the city that will absorb a long afternoon with someone you like.
Caffe Cordina, but the indoor room
Most people sit on the Caffe Cordina terrace on Republic Square. On a rainy day, go inside instead. The painted-ceiling room at the back is one of the more beautiful interiors in the city and it is built for lingering. Order coffee, then bigilla and bread, then a glass of wine, then a kannoli, in that order, over about two hours. The waiters will not push you out. Around twenty-five euros for two if you order properly.
Lot Sixty One for the conversation date
Lot Sixty One on Old Bakery Street is small but it is the most serious coffee in central Valletta and the espresso bar set-up means you can sit at the counter and actually talk for an hour without it feeling weird. Filter coffee is around three-fifty, espresso around two. Pair it with the bookshop next door, Agenda on Republic Street, where you can pick up a paperback and read across from each other for the second hour.
The National Museum of Archaeology
On Republic Street, in the old Auberge de Provence. The Sleeping Lady from the Hypogeum and the Venus of Malta, both prehistoric figurines from the temples, are smaller than you expect and somehow more affecting because of it. Entry is around five euros, the museum takes about an hour and a half, and the building itself, the old auberge of the Knights of Provence, is half the reason to go.
St John's Co-Cathedral
The interior is too much in the best way. Every surface is decorated, the floor is two hundred Knights' tombstones in coloured marble, and the Caravaggios in the oratory are the kind of paintings that change the temperature of a room. Allow ninety minutes minimum. The audio guide is included in the fifteen euro entry and it is genuinely worth wearing. This is one of the few places where being a tourist together is itself a good date, because you will both come out with the same set of things to talk about.
MUZA
MUZA, the national art museum in the old Auberge d'Italie on Merchants Street, is the right size for an afternoon. Big enough to wander, small enough to not get tired in. The collection runs from medieval Maltese altarpieces to contemporary local painters, with a particularly good Mattia Preti room. Entry is around ten euros. The cafe in the courtyard is covered and works as a landing spot afterwards.
The Manoel Theatre, even just for the tour
The Manoel on Old Theatre Street offers daytime guided tours of around forty-five minutes when there is no rehearsal on. The auditorium, built in 1731, is one of the oldest working theatres in Europe, and seeing the gold-leaf boxes lit up empty is its own kind of pleasure. Tours are around five euros. If a matinee is on, go to that instead.
The independent bookshops and record shops
Valletta has a small but real cluster of independent shops that hold up well as date stops. Agenda Bookshop on Republic Street has a strong English-language section. Sapienzas Bookshop on Republic Street is older and has more secondhand stock. D'Amato Records on Saint John Street has been selling vinyl since 1885 and is the kind of shop where you can spend forty minutes flipping through Maltese folk records and Italian disco. None of these will mind you browsing for an hour.
Lascaris War Rooms
Underground, dry, weird. The Lascaris War Rooms are the WWII command bunker carved into the rock under the Upper Barrakka, where the Mediterranean campaign was directed. The tour takes around an hour and is more interesting than it sounds even if you are not a history person. Entry is around fourteen euros. Good for a date who likes objects and stories more than paintings.
A long lunch you do not try to escape from
When all else fails, book a table somewhere with stone walls and stay there for three hours. Rampila, in the old fortifications near the city gate, is built for this. Legligin on Saint Lucia Street, where there is no menu and the food keeps coming, is also built for this. Either will give you a four-course lunch with wine for around forty-five euros a head and neither will rush you out.
Stitching it together
The best rainy Valletta date I can think of looks like this. Coffee at Lot Sixty One around eleven. The Archaeology Museum from twelve to one-thirty. Lunch at Legligin from two to four-thirty. A kannoli and a glass of wine at Caffe Cordina from five to six. A walk back through the wet streets to wherever you are going next. Total cost around eighty euros for two, total time six hours, almost none of it spent outside. The weather becomes the reason the day worked rather than the obstacle to it.