A couple of weeks ago, Guardian travel writer Benji Lanyado, stayed at our place in Valletta for a couple of nights. Today his article about Valletta appears on the Travel Section of the British national newspaper. There is always some trepidation as well as excitement associated with reviews. Since I am currently in Malta, it's a good thing the Guardian is accessible online.

On my beloved city he writes how most visitors overlook it:

Malta's self-championed emergence as a bastion of packaged holidays and cruise liner tourism made one rather fortuitous omission. The five-star hotels of Sliema and St Julians and the resorts in the north-east were bundled up in packages and sold in abundance, leaving Valletta, the tiny Unesco world heritage capital city, largely untouched by tourism. A grid of thin undulating streets all clad in white honey-glazed stone, it feels like an unpolished, less toy-townish version of Dubrovnik.

Benji describes Valletta G-House as one of the finest apartments he has come across and challenges a friend who's impression of Malta is "like grunge, britpop and Gloria Estefan comebacks" to stay at the house. One minute in The Valletta G-House will, he writes, question his friend's perception of the island as one that only appeals to the blue rinse brigade.

Valletta G-House was not the only boutique bed mentioned. Benji loved both properties and mentions that "both apartments are the side-projects of gay men with fashion photography backgrounds". Indeed I know of several houses in Valletta being lovingly restored by gay men in the creative field. Some of these houses are grand little palaces in their own right. The funny thing is that Benji might have inadvertently outed someone.