Retreat to these thoughtfully reimagined farmhouses dotting this rugged but beautiful stretch of southern Italy
Kate Bolton-Porciatti Destination Expert
Kate Bolton-Porciatti is one of the Telegraph’s Italy experts, covering destinations and hotels from the Dolomites to Puglia. She has been based in Florence since 2006 and works as a university lecturer, writer and guide, sharing her knowledge of Italy’s landscapes, culture and history. She has published extensively as an academic and critic, and was formerly a senior producer and journalist for the BBC in London.
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The rugged heel of Italy is studded with masserie: historic rural estates whose polyglot influences tell the story of Puglia’s rich and layered past. Dating from the 16th to the 18th centuries, they meld Apulian, Arabic, Greek and Spanish styles into a distinctive architecture. At their heart stands a noble manor house, surrounded by stables, styes, barns, and sometimes even cone-roofed trulli, all opening onto porticoed courtyards offering sun and shade. Traditionally painted dazzling white, they look fabulously exotic against Puglia’s bright blue skies. Some masserie evolved from ancient coastal watch towers with sweeping sea views; most were fortified and enveloped in vineyards, croplands, citrus and olive groves.
Today, many have been transformed into hotels and resorts which range from traditional rustic farmhouses to contemporary designer sanctuaries with gourmet dining, pools and spas. Whichever you choose, they are places to savour the slower rhythms of the Italian south and the sustainable ethos of the original estates. Here’s our curated selection of the finest masseria hotels in Puglia.
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All our reviewers are either resident destination experts or travel writers that specialise in hotels. Often they will have stayed at a hotel many times and so can see how it has changed for better or worse over the years. They know what makes a great hotel in that particular destination and will compare it contextually against local competition. When our reviewers first visit a hotel, they stay for at least one night, eat one meal in addition to breakfast and will experience all of the facilities on offer. Whichever category of room they stay in, they will see the entry-level rooms in order to assess them.
After their stay, our reviewers then give the hotel six scores out of 10, rating its location, style and character, service and facilities, rooms, food and drink, and value for money. The average of these scores then determines the overall score. Our experts then select reviews for curated lists like this – the best hotels in a particular destination for families, for instance – together with the Telegraph Hotels team.
A sun-drenched masseria set in a quasi-Biblical landscape of ancient olive trees, with views of Ostuni and the Adriatic Sea. Its purist architecture, contemporary-vintage décor and convivial atmosphere will appeal to artists, bohemians and design aficionados. The bedrooms feature chalk-white walls and shuttered French doors opening onto secluded outdoor areas, while furnishings are spare and rustic – all weathered wood and rumpled linens, with not a frill or flounce in sight. There's a long open-air pool, with plenty of space for lounging under the olive trees, and lunch and dinner are gracefully served at a communal table with chef Giorgia Goggi serving Mediterranean dishes featuring plenty of organic produce from the gardens.
Rocco Forte’s sister and director of design, Olga Polizzi, has given a contemporary twist to vernacular traditions in her chic restyling of this handsome Apulian masseria. It’s now a luxurious five-star stay, graced with a chivalric medieval tower, majestic reception rooms with Moorish-style arches and vaults, and an open-air colonnaded pool that looks like something out of Hadrian’s Villa. Most of the 40 rooms stretch out along the edge of the golf course, which is studded with ancient olive trees, while some look across the freeway to the sea. Staff find just the right balance between slick professionalism and unstuffy charm, and the concierge can organise excursions to local towns and villages, ceramic-making workshops and the music festival at nearby Martina Franca.
From £ 1,464
per night
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This snug masseria-turned-b&b sits on an urban street, a five-minute stroll from the old centre of Fasano and around five miles to Puglia’s east coast. Dating from the 19th century, it’s an architectural gem: chunky limestone walls, barrel- and cross-vaulted ceilings, stone fireplaces, arches, alcoves and niches. With just four rooms and two suites, the atmosphere is secluded and intimate, and outside, an inviting sunken pool is the centrepiece of the courtyard. The owners will help suggest tours to Puglia’s main sights, trips to nearby "sagre" (festivals celebrating local traditions) and visits to farms and wineries for olive oil, wine- and cheese-making demos.
From £ 261
per night
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This five-star hotel built around a 16th-century farmhouse provides a family-friendly stay amid ancient olive groves between Fasano and the coast. From here, it’s a 15-minute bike ride to the Adriatic Coast where the hotel also has two private beach clubs. The original farm’s limestone buildings, complete with watchtower, have been sensitively adapted to now encompass chic bedrooms, places to eat and drink, and a spa that now occupies underground caves formerly used for an olive mill. Activities here abound, with horse riding, cooking classes and yoga among those on offer. The family-run masseria hotel lies within idyllic gardens also home to an inviting pool.
From £ 624
per night
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This gorgeous, golden-stone masseria overlooks a walled courtyard, citrus groves and secret gardens just 20 minutes’ drive from Lecce. The scrupulous renovation by its Australian owner Rob Potter-Sanders exalts the sheer beauty of the architecture: walls of honeyed limestone, cathedral-like cross-vaults and its own frescoed chapel. Furnishings are spare (a mix of country antiques and contemporary pieces) allowing the majestic features to speak for themselves, and outside you'll find a tranquil open-air swimming pool edged with shaded lounge-beds. Breakfast, light lunches and dinner are taken in the shade of the lemon grove or in one of the magnificent halls, while aperitivi are served on a roof terrace which affords romantic sunsets.
From £ 507
per night
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Once the watch tower of the medieval Knights of Malta, Masseria San Domenico is a real oasis. The sedate rooms are decorated in a sober, classic style: brown wood and wrought iron furniture, a scattering of antiques and skirted bedspreads. Embroidered rugs and vibrant ceramics from nearby Grottaglia add a splash of colour, and many of the suites lead out onto a private terrace. The pièce-de-resistance is the vast seawater lagoon pool – an oasis of sparkling water, rocks and palm trees – though this Puglian retreat also benefits from an excellent wellness centre specialising in Thalassotherapy (using seawater) and treatments featuring products made with the estate’s own olive oil.
From £ 1,006
per night
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A former convent, turned masseria, in the fertile agricultural plains of Puglia with views to the sea at nearby Polignano a Mare. It's an exclusive home-from-home, with just 10 peaceful rooms, a swimming pool and restaurant – all immersed in a private estate. The bedrooms retain a timeless, monastic quality: silent and chalk-white with high vaults, alcoves, niches and church candles. Though simple, they lack nothing in comfort, and some open onto patios and the gardens while others have raised terraces overlooking the farmlands. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are all available on request; in fine weather, guests dine outside in the little “piazzetta” where there’s a wood-fired oven, and herbs, olive oil, honey and fruit all come from the masseria’s own land.
From £ 514
per night
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A splendid masseria set among luxuriant gardens and historic olive groves, with characterful bedrooms spread around an old mansion and a handful of former farm buildings. Original period furnishings evoke the atmosphere of the old baronial estate: carved-wood and painted-iron beds; trousseau chests and armoires; antique linens. A stone-paved courtyard, decked with wicker armchairs, is the heart of the masseria’s social life, and there's a tranquil swimming pool with an adjacent honesty bar. The highlight of a sojourn here, however, is the banquet-like dinner served in the courtyard, uniting guests and reviving the convivial spirit of the ancient farm-cum-village.
From £ 238
per night
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Time stands still at Cimino, a weathered 18th-century farmhouse, bounded by ancient Roman walls, Biblical olive trees, orchards and vegetable plots that provide guests with traditional Puglian food. Décor is rustic, simple and faintly Greek: brilliant white walls and white bed drapes; old plank doors and chunky wooden furniture painted dove grey. Some rooms have terraces, and some have functioning fireplaces making a winter stay an inviting proposition. Service is homely and familial, and small-group cooking lessons with the resident chef are a convivial affair. The facilities have a rustic charm: a small swimming pool in the former goats' pen, bamboo-covered terraces, a compact gym in an old farm building.
From £ 338
per night
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This masseria-style resort, located just 15 miles south of the glorious Baroque town of Lecce, is set in an Arcadian idyll of luxuriant gardens and sweeping farmland. A sense of peace and well-being pervades here – the owners have spent many years transforming this 18th-century tobacco farm into a place of respite and repose. Their conversion is stylish and empathetic, guided by a respect for nature and local traditions. To this end, the resort is furnished with Apulian antiques, locally hand-loomed fabrics and demijohns artfully posed in stone niches, while outside, emerald lawns are planted with pines, figs and feathery rose-pepper trees. The open-air saltwater swimming pool is a lovely spot, and the cosy, exclusive-use spa, forged from a rustic stone barn, has a hamman and sunken jet pool.
From £ 535
per night
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This ruggedly handsome masseria – one of the Egnazia hotel group – lies in an enviable position near Ostuni. Décor is spare, simple and rustic, and several of the bedrooms have their own balconies or private patios. Outside there are numerous terraces surrounded by citrus trees and ruddy-earthed olive groves, and two swimming pools have been forged from former sheep pens. Meals are served in a vine-draped courtyard in warm weather or in the old stone-vaulted olive mill on cooler evenings – Chef Massimo Santoro’s guiding ethos is to preserve the 0 km, "no waste" philosophy of the original masseria, to which end most of the produce in the vegetarian restaurant is grown on Le Carrube’s estate.
From £ 509
per night
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A 16th-century masseria featuring a quartet of this region’s distinctive trulli, Cervarolo is a charm-filled rural hideaway in Puglia's verdant Valle d’Itria, near Ostuni. The soul of this architecturally impressive site has been retained through its transformation into a boutique hotel. Of the 17 rooms and suites, this retreat’s traditional-meets-contemporary rooms occupy the main house, along with some of the junior suites also featuring a terrace or balcony, while the remaining suites take over the site’s trulli. The restaurant takes over the masseria’s lamia and the bar is found by the pool, which is located in a natural sinkhole of the terraced gardens.
From £ 439
per night
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This former masseria – positioned on the verge of Lecce’s historic centre – pays tribute to both past and present with designer pieces and contemporary artworks hung beside impressive original features. The 16 rooms and suites (most with terrace or walled courtyard) are cool and sophisticated, and given its location, the secluded olive grove and open-air pool are a real bonus during the long Puglian summers. The restaurant offers light lunches and a dinner menu that blends Italian traditions with contemporary tastes – dishes vary according to the seasons, but a few samples include a carpaccio of Gallipoli prawns, spaghetti with baby tomatoes, garlic, anchovies and basil, and Fassona beef fillet seared tataki style.
From £ 511
per night
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This lordly masseria-winery is an outstanding example of the ancient, fortified farm-castles scattered across rural Puglia. The whole pile has been impeccably converted by Apulian architect Vito Rezza, whose minimalist approach allows the spaces to breathe. The 18 rooms – many with blond limestone vaults – are blissfully cool in the searingly hot summers, and the spare, contemporary décor features locally crafted wrought-iron bedheads, handmade terracotta lamps and tiles from nearby Laterza. Facilities include an outdoor infinity pool, wine-barrel cellars and rooms for dégustations, plus it's well placed for exploring the ravine towns of Mottola, Ginosa and Laterza.
From £ 276
per night
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Contributions by Clare Speak, Hayley Lewis, Jade Conroy and Paula Hardy.