I read with interest the letter from Rudolf Grima in Rabat concerning the demise of the Verdala Hotel in Rabat in The Sunday Times. We spent many a happy holiday at the Verdala Hotel and would love to see another hotel built there.

Rabat and the surrounding area is one of our favourite parts of Malta and it was always nice to stay at the Verdala and yet feel part of Maltese life enjoying the town of Rabat and able to stroll to Mdina when the crowds had gone. We had always heard that there had been ambitious plans for a new hotel and golf course although the fact that the hotel sat above such lovely farming land was one of the attractions for us, and inevitably a golf course would have impinged upon that.

Every time we return to Malta we visit the Verdala to see what has happened and it is sad to see the building now falling into decay and becoming an eyesore especially when the Verdala Mansions and surrounds look so attractive.

We visit Malta frequently and have stayed in various places but if there was a new hotel in Rabat on the site of the Verdala we would be back there like a shot.