There are three bomb shelters in the basement of Casa Rocca Piccola, all of which were cut out of the solid rock foundation of Valletta and are part of the original quarry used to build the house. You will see two shelters constructed inside the large 16th century wells of Casa Rocca Piccola. In order to preserve water, each house in Valletta had to have a well by law. In 1940 these wells were connected together by means of tunnels cut from the rock. More tunnels were constructed to connect all of Valletta underground. It is often said that after the war, there were more streets underneath Valletta than on the surface.

In the larger well there is an area to fit as many as one hundred and fifty people. It was accessible from the main street through a staircase linking it with the subterranean tunnels of Valletta. The shelter, probably the largest well in the area, was used as a church on Sundays. People came in through the tunnels and a temporary wooden altar was set up for the service. Many of the older local people of Valletta remember sleeping in the wells, as it was unsafe to sleep at home.

Casa Rocca Piccola also lays claim to the first privately built bomb shelter in Malta. In 1935 Antonio Cassar Torregiani arranged for a small rock tunnel to be cut from his garden into the cellars and you will be able to see where his family and servants hid during World War II.

The shelters tell the story of some the blackest days in Malta's long history and as well as being awe inspiring in construction, they evoke powerful emotions of nostalgia to all those who used them in World War II.