But it’s still up to us to tell the next generation what a gem it is in the first place. Quite a lot of work to do then!

Then you haven’t seen it properly. How many have noticed that the previous balconies that belong to the people who live in those government flats have been replaced with the traditional Gallarija? I happened to be there, on site, when they were being replaced.

I went days after when works were completed just to see how they looked. The people got a free gallarija but this aside, the balconies alone compared to the ugly stone structure they had before, are already enough to restore the traditional factor in the city which must have been a major concern to the Architect in question.

Basically, I think the new structure will be a mixture of the old, the traditional with the new.

He pleased everybody. I don’t see why people should sweat about the small stuff.

“I am a layman and all I want on my walled capital is a gate. I can see the open theatre working in theory, but in practice it will never be maintained.”

The gate would separate you from the baroque city feeling and would distance you from the various forms of architectural structures and from the historical point of view.

The gate we had before never interested me and Valletta was what it is to many people: just another shopping area. This happened obviously because the focus was shops shops and more shops from the instance one enters Valletta – there were shops to the left side, the right side and the centre, do you remember the market when it used to be there in the parking area?

Have confidence in the new project. The entrance to Valletta has taken the shape it so desperately needed. The project may have created uncertainties but this is a natural process because people were foreseeing the project in its early stages, i.e. when it was still cranes, scaffolding and barrier walls.

Jozef, it’s for the clients to decide what they want: rebuild, construct sometime else, convert.

Many historical buildings have been partially, heavily or completely rebuilt (London would have hardly anything left had this not been the case) so it would have been perfectly acceptable to rebuild the opera house from Barry’s original plans even if subsequently it were to be used for a different activity (who knows…Wardakanta maybe?).

On the other hand, modernisation and progressive modification of buildings takes places regularly (see landmarks such as Buckingham Palace, the Louvre, Cologne Cathedral).

On the contrary, it was built with strategy, plan and progress in mind.

The project is now taking shape and one can immediately feel that the new layout immediately takes one to the places that connects us to our heritage. Something which was unheard of before.

If you mention Valletta to people, all they tell you is: ‘Eh ili ma nidhol nixtri minn hemm.’ Rather than – I go to Valletta because I can enjoy the gardens, the sites, I love being there because its very accessible to people.

Renzo Piano made it happen and trusting this world-renowned Architect with our Valletta’s entrance was, in my opinion, one of the best decisions ever.

Jozef, I didn’t say ‘just the Brits’ but ‘The Gherkin’ was mentioned. Nicknames of buildings are found everyone, but in Malta they are used in the ways I’ve already described.

He even met Joseph Muscat soon after he became PM, but we never hear anything about what was discussed. Maybe Muscat was that impressed.

Plenty of ‘hind’…not too much ‘sight’ though.

The Royal Opera House designed by an architect who never even came to Malta to see the site or its environment, was in the Neo-Classical style and a complete contrast with Baroque Valletta.

There was never a serious consideration of rebuilding it as it was and we should be grateful that the Zavellani-Rossi concept chosen in 1953 was never adopted; in fact it covered the area of both the old opera house and the present parliament site with one big featureless mass with a dome on top.