Idiot's Guide to Malta

See it?  Right at the bottom of the map...

Maybe the above is a little strongly worded, but it will suffice for the purposes here.  Because frankly, a lot of people don't have the first notion about Malta, if they've even heard of it at all.  So here are some simple answers to some simple questions and search terms that appear on the internet:

Where is Malta?  
-  It is in the Mediterranean, just south of Sicily, Italy.

So Malta is part of Italy then.
-  No, it's near Italy but it is an independent country.

Not Spanish either?  Sounds a bit like Mallorca, Malaga and those other Spanish ones...
-  No.  Not Spanish, it's an independent country.