Some two years ago I wrote a letter to The Times, after having followed a group of cruise liner tourists through the then City Gate. The official guide brought a smile to my face by telling his group that Valletta is a most beautiful city past the first 100 metres or so. He was referring to the ugly car park just inside City Gate and the ruins of the Opera House.

On my most recent visit last week I again happened to get caught in the middle of a group of tourists, when another guide started his tour stating more or less the same words.

There is no doubt that my native city Valletta is one of the most beautiful in the world, but sadly, with all the shambles of the new City Gate project, the whole area is still very much an eyesore. So I agree that visitors are told to close their eye for the first 100 metres or so as they enter the city, or at the very least just look to the left at the Francia building.

Like many Maltese, I am still unconvinced about the validity of the Valletta project. Having seen the Shard in London now completed, Renzo Piano was never going to design anything sympathetic to Valletta’s existing Baroque architecture.

This Italian so-called genius should have been made to do a left turn well before he arrived in Malta; the biggest shame is that now as I have stated many times before the ‘carbuncle’, also known as the Parliament building, is festering and getting even bigger and uglier. This project is slowly taking the beauty out of Valletta, but who am I to disagree with the powers that be?