Rosselli AX Privilege

Rosselli AX Privilege

Valletta is one of the smallest capital cities in Europe and one of the most concentrated: a Baroque grid of honey-coloured limestone streets built by the Knights of St John in the 16th century, with grand palaces, a co-cathedral that announces itself by surprise around a corner, and a harbour that the Knights chose because no harbour in the Mediterranean was more defensible. The city has been UNESCO-listed since 1980 and has only recently been discovered by the kind of traveller who prefers a city with layers to one with a beach club. Rosselli is on Merchants Street, in the 17th-century Baroque palazzo Casa Rosselli-Massa, once the residence of a noble goldsmith and laced with the legacy of the Knights, and the renovation by Forward Architects is the most ambitious thing to have happened to a Maltese hotel in recent memory. The 25 rooms and suites are organised around six distinct design languages, each named after a significant figure in the building's history, ranging from monochrome Deco to colourful geometric modernism to postmodern eclecticism. No two suites share a register, and the difference between them is substantial enough to be worth specifying at booking. The 400-year-old fountain in the central courtyard and the original oil paintings in the reception are the building asserting itself quietly against the contemporary interiors, and the tension between the two is the most interesting thing about the place. The dining offer runs vertically: Under Grain in the basement holds a Michelin star and is the most refined meal in Malta; Grain Street at ground level does Mediterranean small plates with a Bib Gourmand; Over Grain on the rooftop handles cocktails, charcuterie, and the Valletta skyline at dusk. This is a hotel for people who find Malta's resort coast beside the point and want the city itself, the Caravaggio in St John's Co-Cathedral, the Upper Barrakka Gardens, the ferry across the Grand Harbour to the Three Cities. It opened in 2019 and immediately became the most talked-about address on the island, which in a city this small takes about a week to confirm. The short version: Twenty-five individually designed suites in a 17th-century Baroque palazzo on Merchants Street, with a Michelin-starred restaurant in the basement, a Bib Gourmand at street level, and a rooftop bar above the Valletta skyline. The city's most compelling address, and not by a small margin.