Malta has ranked in third place in List 25’s list of best cities to live in. List 25 is a popular amateur website featuring top 25 lists on anything from stereotypical cat pictures to crazy facts about the universe.

Malta won the third spot in the list, being beaten only by New York and Vienna, which came in second and first place respectively. Other cities featured in the list include Melbourne, Salvador in Brazil, Dubai, Vancouver and Prague.

Interestingly, the list drew some criticism by online commentators who did not agree with the author’s choice. One even said he couldn’t believe that Malta, a country that “does not even have normal drinking water,” featured in third place.

But former tourism minister Joe Grima stepped in to the island’s defence insisting that Malta has everything one could wish for in a modern country. Mr Grima was also backed by a number of other Maltese commentators in what developed into a tit for tat on Malta’s global standing.