Puglia Villas

Puglia is a long, narrow region — 400 kilometres from the Gargano headland in the north down to Santa Maria di Leuca at the tip of the heel — with two coastlines (Adriatic and Ionian) and a flat, sun-drenched interior that is one of the largest olive-oil producers in the world.

The towns are unlike anywhere else in Italy. The whitewashed hilltowns of the Valle d'Itria — Ostuni, Locorotondo, Cisternino, Martina Franca — that look like Greek-island villages somehow planted in Apulian limestone. The trulli of Alberobello, cone-roofed stone houses that have been there since the 14th century. Polignano a Mare and Monopoli on the Adriatic cliffs. Lecce in the south, the 'Florence of the south', with its honey-stone baroque churches lit gold at sunset. Otranto and Gallipoli on the heel itself.

The masserie are Puglia's defining stay. These are fortified farmhouses, four-foot-thick walls around a central courtyard, built in the 16th and 17th centuries against pirate raids. Many have been restored as villas, the best of them privately bookable, with pools cut into the centre of the courtyard and olive groves running to the horizon.

The food is southern, sun-drenched, and pasta-and-vegetable-heavy. Orecchiette with broccoli rabe, burrata from Andria (where it was invented), focaccia barese, taralli, fresh anchovies from Polignano, swordfish from Gallipoli, Primitivo and Negroamaro wines that have been making producers in the north nervous for a decade.

May, June, September, and early October are our favourite months in Puglia. The weather is warm and stable, the sea is comfortable for swimming, and the masserie are at their best. July and August are gorgeous but hot and busy; book early. November and December are the olive harvest, beautiful and quiet, with most masserie still open through mid-October.

Puglia has a hot Mediterranean climate softened by the sea on three sides. Monthly highs run from around 54°F in January to 84°F in July and August. Swim weather is reliably May through October. Rainfall is low; even spring and autumn are mostly sunny.

Orecchiette with broccoli rabe, burrata di Andria, focaccia barese, taralli, fresh anchovies, sea-urchin pasta, swordfish, capocollo di Martina Franca, and Primitivo and Negroamaro wines. Restaurants we book: Pashà and Casa Tua in Conversano, Bros' and Alex in Lecce, Antichi Sapori in Montegrosso (a one-Michelin-star institution), I Due Camini at Borgo Egnazia.

Boat days on the Adriatic, masseria cooking classes, olive-oil tastings at family frantoi, evenings in the white towns, the baroque of Lecce, the trulli of Alberobello at dawn, the Matera Sassi (over the border in Basilicata), and beach days at Pescoluse and Punta Prosciutto.

Ostuni (the queen of the white towns), Lecce (baroque jewel), Polignano a Mare (cliffside dramatic), Alberobello (trulli), Monopoli (working port town), Martina Franca (baroque and food), Otranto (the easternmost point of Italy), Gallipoli (Ionian beaches).

Yes. Puglia is a large, spread-out region and most of the best stays are masserie deep in the countryside. A car is essential, or arrange private driver service through our concierge for full days out.

Very good. The masserie are set up for families (pools, gardens, kitchens, often kid-friendly chefs), the beaches are shallow and clean, the towns are walkable and safe, and the food is friendly. Many of our most-loved Puglia bookings are multi-family.