If you’re looking for things to do in Valletta, most lists will point you straight to St John’s Co-Cathedral or the Upper Barrakka Gardens. Both worth your time. But tucked along Republic Street, at number 74, there’s somewhere that tends to surprise people more than either of them.
Casa Rocca Piccola is a palazzo that has been home to the de Piro family for nearly 350 years. It’s also open to the public. And that combination is exactly what makes it so good.
Not a museum, but a real living palazzo
The palace was originally built in 1580 for Don Pietro La Rocca, a Knight of Malta. The de Piro family acquired it later, and they have lived in Valletta for almost 350 years. The current resident is the 9th Marquis de Piro.
What you notice immediately is that nobody has tried to make this feel like a heritage site. The rooms are full of things the family actually collected, used, and cared about over the centuries. Portraits of the Marquises hang alongside more recent paintings. Objects like belt buckles, glasses, and silverware accumulate in the way they do in real homes. It’s pleasantly uncurated, and that’s the point.
Rooms that wander
Visitors can explore 12 rooms on the piano nobile, though the building has over 50 rooms in total. The layout is typical of a Valletta palazzo and still manages to feel genuinely surprising. Corridors open into unexpected spaces. Rooms connect in ways you don’t anticipate. You can almost get lost.
Highlights include:
- An 18th-century golden sedan chair
- The largest collection of Maltese lace on the island
- Works by French painter Antoine de Favray and Maltese artist Giuseppe Calì
- A walled garden with orange trees, home to Kiku, a blue and gold macaw
Walls full of stories
The paintings covering every wall are worth the visit alone. There’s no single style or period. Old ancestral portraits sit alongside European works and more personal pieces. Nothing feels arranged for show, which makes looking at them more enjoyable, not less.
Under the house
Beneath the palace, there’s a network of underground passages and tunnels cut out of the rock over the course of its 400-year history, including a cavern used during WW2 to shelter over 100 people from the heavy bombing. It’s one of the most affecting parts of the visit.
Before you go
- Guided tours run daily.
- An audio self-tour app is also available in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish, with free wifi provided.
- The palace is at 74 Republic Street, about 15 minutes’ walk from the Valletta bus terminus.
- Budget around 1 hour, more if you linger.
- There’s a café on site.
Book tickets directly via the Casa Rocca Piccola website.
Casa Rocca Piccola is one of those places that’s hard to describe without making it sound grander than it feels in person. It’s not grand in a formal sense. It’s personal, and that’s rarer. If you’re staying near Valletta, it’s one of the most genuine things to do in the area.