With 96 points out of 100, the Mediterranean islands of Malta and Gozo received the top score in the Climate category of IL’s Annual Retirement Index (released last month).

These islands, undiscovered jewels that most people couldn’t pinpoint on a map, offer blue skies and sunshine—even in January and February.

You need a “story” when you move to a new place. Some identity that the people you’ll meet can latch on to. A way to fit in.

From the air, the Maltese archipelago resembles tiny stepping stones that some ancient god scattered across the Mediterranean. Since antiquity, these outposts have served as a bridge linking southern Italy to North Africa—and Western Europe to the Middle East. They were inhabited way before St. Paul was shipwrecked on Malta’s western shore and early Christians burrowed under sun-baked rocks to build catacombs for their dead.

Remember how that classic Hollywood movie, The Maltese Falcon , begins? “In 1539, the Knights Templar of Malta paid tribute to Charles V of Spain by sending him a Golden Falcon encrusted from beak to claw with rarest jewels… but pirates seized the galley carrying this priceless token and the fate of the Maltese Falcon remains a mystery to this day.”

It’s not only the sun and the crystal-clear sea that attracts thousands of visitors to the Maltese islands—the friendliness of the local English-speaking inhabitants, their rich history and culture, the relaxed lifestyle, and leisure facilities all contribute to Malta’s charm. With Europe’s biggest budget airline Ryanair now running daily flights between the UK and Malta, and three weekly flights to and from Pisa and Dublin, demand for vacation property—already on the increase since Malta joined the EU in 2004—looks set to boom.

If you think that the island nation of Malta has no cuisine of its own, and that the locals lazily copy the menus of their European neighbors, prepare to be enlightened. This false impression came about because the Maltese traditionally do not dine outside their homes and many restaurants don’t bother to serve local dishes (believing that the vast majority of tourists fear sampling anything other than what they’d see back home).