Photo: Berthold Werner (CC BY-SA 3.0)
A self-guided audio walk through Mdina, the walled hilltop city at the centre of Malta, and Rabat below it. It enters by the Mdina Gate of 1724, past the Torre dello Standardo and Vilhena Palace, both part of Grand Master Vilhena's rebuilding after the earthquake of 1693, then passes St Peter's Monastery, home of Benedictine nuns from about 1418, the Church of Saint Agatha and the late fourteenth-century Palazzo Gatto Murina, which survived the earthquake. Along Villegaignon Street come the Banca Giuratale, seat of the Università, the Cathedral Museum and St. Paul's Cathedral, rebuilt by Lorenzo Gafà, then Palazzo Santa Sofia, the Chapel of St Roque, the Carmelite Priory and Palazzo Falson, where Grand Master L'Isle Adam stayed in 1531. From Bastion Square and Greeks Gate the walk leaves the walls for the Domvs Romana and its mosaic of two doves, then goes down into Rabat to St Paul's Grotto, the Wignacourt Museum and its wartime shelters, and the catacombs of St Catald, St Paul and St Agatha. Mdina is about thirteen kilometres from Valletta and its cruise port, with buses from the Valletta terminus stopping in Rabat.
21 narrations, yours to keep — no subscription, no expiry. Works offline once downloaded, and if it isn’t for you we’ll refund it.
Going somewhere with no signal? Put the guide on your home screen first, then download it from that icon while you are on wi-fi — that way you download once, and it works in airplane mode with no roaming charges. Show me the order →
Every claim in this tour traces back to a named source — excavation records, the heritage authority for the site, and the primary texts themselves. Nothing is copied from other guidebooks, and anything we can't source doesn't make the recording.
Each stop is built from OpenStreetMap · 48 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 25 cross-referenced entries (peer-reviewed structured records), the heritage authority below, and the primary historical texts where they exist.
Cross-referenced against Modern excavation publications · academic peer-review.
Every sentence is checked against those sources before it is recorded. If a claim can't be traced, it doesn't make the audio.
Every tour is reviewed by a person before it goes on sale. Stop selection, the route and anything ambiguous come back to the editor for a decision, and those questions routinely send a stop back for another accuracy pass. Nothing publishes on a machine’s say-so.
Spot anything inaccurate? Email [email protected] — fixed in the next pass.
Mdina Gate, Torre dello Standardo, Vilhena Palace, St Peter's Monastery, Church of Saint Agatha, Palazzo Gatto Murina.
Banca Giuratale, Mdina Cathedral Museum, St. Paul's Cathedral, Palazzo Santa Sofia, Chapel of St Roque, Carmelite Priory, Palazzo Falson.
Bastion Square, Greeks Gate, Domvs Romana, St Paul's Church and Grotto, Wignacourt Museum, Saint Catald Chapel and Catacombs, St. Paul's Catacombs, St Agatha's Catacombs.
The Baroque gate of 1724, with lions on the bridge, patron saints over the inner arch and the blocked medieval gate still visible beside it.
A late fourteenth-century Siculo-Norman palace that survived the 1693 earthquake, with its Chiaramonte double windows.
Rebuilt by Lorenzo Gafà after the 1693 earthquake on the traditional site of Publius's house, its floor paved with marble tombstones.
A courtyard house on the site of the Arab-period La Rocca, where Grand Master L'Isle Adam stayed in 1531, now a house museum.
A Roman town house below a later Muslim cemetery, with the mosaic of two doves drinking from a bowl and portraits of Claudius.
The burial ground of Roman Melite, where Christian, Jewish and pagan tombs lie side by side around rock-cut agape tables.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 21 narration points.
Follow the suggested route or explore freely. GPS tracks your position. Reach a site and the narration plays automatically.
Each site has its own narration. 21 narration points.
Narrations play when you reach each site. No buttons, no track numbers. Walk naturally — the stories find you.
Premium narration that sounds like a documentary. Warm and knowledgeable, not a textbook reading.
Every narration is drafted, cross-checked against primary sources, then passed through a second editorial pass that strips unsupported claims. Dates, names, and citations verified.
See all narration points on the map. Tap any point to hear it early or replay it later.
Every narrated point in Mdina and Rabat — the Old Capital, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
21 narration points, including Mdina Gate, Torre dello Standardo, Vilhena Palace, St Peter's Monastery and Church of Saint Agatha. That is about 29 minutes of narration in all, and you walk between the stops at your own pace.
Yes. It plays in your phone’s browser as you walk: no guide, no group, no app to install and no fixed start time.
Three ways, all built in:
The map-tap option means you can stand anywhere — even at home before you travel — and play any narration. GPS just makes it hands-free while you’re actually walking the site.
No. Use the “Download for offline” button before you go, and the entire tour — audio, maps, narration text — works without any data connection. Tap-to-play and the map both work fully offline. GPS itself doesn’t need data; only the download does.
Add the icon first, then download from the icon. On iPhone a guide downloaded in Safari cannot be seen by the home screen icon, so downloading first means downloading the whole thing twice.
Putting it on your home screen — iPhone or iPad (Safari):
On Android (Chrome): tap the three-dot menu at the top right, tap Add to Home screen (some phones say Install app), then confirm. On Android either order works.
If you opened this link from inside Instagram, Facebook or Gmail, you are in that app’s built-in browser. It cannot add anything to your home screen, and a guide downloaded there is thrown away when the app closes. Open the link in Safari or Chrome first.
Two backstops. First, the map shows every site — just tap the marker for the place in front of you. Second, you can manually queue any narration even when GPS is off. The platform never assumes GPS works; it’s the convenience layer, not the gate.
The audio runs ~1–2 hours total, but you walk at your own pace. 21 narration points across the site. Most visitors take 2–4 hours; some spread it over multiple visits. Once you buy it, it’s yours — there’s no expiry and no subscription. Come back next year if you like; the link in your receipt always works.
One purchase covers one device session. Most couples share earbuds and use a single phone — the audio is paced for that. If you want everyone listening on their own device, each person needs their own purchase. We do not gate sharing aggressively; we trust visitors to do the right thing.
Full refund if you never trigger a single narration on-site. Partial refund based on how far you got. See the refund policy for specifics.