Valletta Vintage

Valletta Vintage

Valletta rewards the traveller who arrives without an itinerary, which is a way of saying it rewards the kind of traveller who ends up at Valletta Vintage. The hotel, if hotel is the right word for it, is a collection of ten mid-century-style studio apartments spread across several 18th-century limestone buildings in the city's quieter residential streets, curated and designed by an owner-architect who has been salvaging and restoring vintage furniture and designer pieces for years. There is no concierge, no restaurant, no lobby to speak of. What there is, is a specific quality of inhabiting a city rather than visiting it. The studios are named and individually conceived: the Scala building's five apartments take their names from a musical scale, Do through Sol, organised around a restored spiral staircase; the Library has a traditional Maltese balcony, a hammock, and Philippe Starck lighting; the Atelier has sea views from south-facing windows; the Retro Pad, on one of Valletta's most charming residential streets, is a one-bedroom maisonette with an eclectic accumulation of restored furniture and design objects that reflects the owner's eye rather than a decorator's brief. A shared rooftop terrace with 360-degree views of the city sits above the Republic Street building, and a fully equipped communal kitchen on the fourth floor handles the rest. The Hideout, a separate pied-à-terre in the medieval village of Birgu across the harbour, is worth knowing about for anyone who wants the Three Cities rather than the capital. This is accommodation for people who find the idea of living inside a Baroque capital city for a few days more appealing than being accommodated in it. Valletta is walkable in its entirety, St John's Co-Cathedral is around the corner, and the Upper Barrakka Gardens are ten minutes on foot. A car is unnecessary for the city and essential for the rest of the island. The short version: Ten individually designed mid-century studio apartments across several historic Valletta buildings, curated by an owner-architect with a serious eye for vintage furniture and design. No concierge, no restaurant, and exactly the right way to live in the city for a few days.