FCM Bank opens premium banking branch in Malta By Hot Malta staff Sliema’s buzzing Tower Road woke up to a fresh coat of financial polish this morning as FCM Bank cut the ribbon on its first flagship “premium banking lounge” on the island, a move the lender says is less about marble counters and more…
Grand Harbour named ‘most beautiful’ cruise port in study – and every Maltese heart quietly nods Valletta’s limestone bastions were already glowing amber in the early-morning light when the MSC Grandiosa glided through the breakwater at 06:30 on Tuesday. By 07:05, WhatsApp groups from Bormla to Balluta were pinging the same link: a global survey…
Appreciation: Anthony Zammit – the quiet force who put Maltese craftsmanship on the world map Valletta’s morning light is still spilling over the limestone balconies when the workshop door on Old Bakery Street creaks open. Inside, wood-shavings curl like miniature ħobża crusts and the air smells of beeswax and sea-salt. For forty-two years this has…
Aldo Micallef Grimaud’s first major retrospective in Malta flings open the doors of MUŻA this evening, and Valletta’s streets already feel louder. By 19:00 the museum’s sandstone steps are dotted with teenagers in hoodies scrolling through the artist’s Instagram reels, while septuagenarians in Sunday best clutch the exhibition catalogue like a prayer book. Inside, 120…
**Let’s make our balconies green** *From Sliema’s concrete cliffs to Valletta golden-stone tiers, a quiet revolution is unfurling—one geranium, one herb box, one reused tal-ħobż tin at a time.* Walk down any Maltese street at dawn and you will hear it before you see it: the splash of water on wrought iron, the creak of…
For 400 years the honey-coloured limestone façade of Dar Saura has watched over Triq il-Kbira in Żejtun like a silent elder, its Baroque balconies shuttered to all but pigeons and passing clouds. This Saturday and Sunday, for the first time in its long life, the doors of one of Malta’s last intact 17th-century urban palazzi…
RAW: Artist Veronica Lee on the beauty of imperfection In a sun-drenched studio overlooking Valletta’s Grand Harbour, Veronica Lee dips a cracked ceramic bowl into a basin of seawater she collected at dawn from Sliema’s shoreline. The bowl, once destined for a Żabbar charity-shop shelf, will become part of her new series “Kisses of the…
**In the Hush of the Harbour: How “Wens, Comfortable Silence” is Teaching Valletta to Listen Again** Valletta’s streets rarely stay quiet for long. Between the brass bands rehearsing in the Upper Barrakka gardens, the ferry horns echoing across Grand Harbour and the clatter of pastizzi trays at dawn, the capital’s soundscape is as layered as…
**Maltese Collectors Hold Breath After €600,000 Paris Gold Heist Shakes Global Heritage Scene** Valletta’s narrow limestone streets may feel worlds away from the grand boulevards of Paris, but news that three masked thieves smashed display cases at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs on Monday and escaped with 60 kilos of priceless gold artefacts has sent…
**Watch: Lands minister backs CEO amid Fortina land valuation controversy** Lands Minister Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi has thrown his weight behind the Lands Authority CEO Robert Vella, insisting Vella “enjoys my full confidence” despite a mushrooming public outcry over the €1.9 million valuation placed on a prime 3,000-square-metre tract of seabed opposite the Fortina Hotel in…
**Architects warn Malta’s construction frenzy is ‘eating the future’ – and the past** Valletta – Walk down any village street at 6 a.m. and the soundtrack is identical: pneumatic hammers, steel cutters and the low rumble of trucks dumping limestone dust into the dawn. To many Maltese, the noise has become the heartbeat of a…
**HSBC Malta’s €200m Exit: The End of an Era for the Red-and-White Bank** Sliema’s Tower Road was already buzzing with Tuesday-morning espresso steam when the WhatsApp forwards landed: HSBC Malta is being sold to CrediaBank for €200 million. Within minutes, pensioners in the queue at the branch opposite Preluna Hotel were asking tellers if their…
