Mr & Mrs Smith

Sextantio Albergo Diffuso

Abruzzo, Italy

Sextantio Albergo Diffuso is a brand new boutique concept: bits of the hotel are spread around a micro-village in the Italian Apennines. It’s a throw-back to the Middle Ages, with craftwork made by villagers, restoration-revived traditions and rustic simplicity maintaining the hilly hamlet’s mediaeval charm, but with modern luxury seamlessly incorporated.

Need to know

• Rooms 27, including seven suites.
• Rates Double rooms from $88.18 (€68), excluding tax at 10 per cent.
  The price shown represents the lowest nightly rate for a double room available at this hotel over the next 21 days. Any price conversions from the hotel's local currency (€68) have been conducted using today's exchange rates from xe.com.
• More details Rates include Continental breakfast.
• Facilities Library, free WiFi throughout. In rooms: minibar and artisan bath products.
• Check-out 11am, but flexible if there’s availability. Earliest check-in, 3pm.
• Children Cots and extra beds are provided free. Babysitting with a local nanny costs €15 an hour (give a day’s notice).
• Also For the less mobile, some of this rustic site's cobbled steps and grassy slopes might be tricky to navigate.

Food and drink at Sextantio Albergo Diffuso

• Hotel restaurant Locanda Sotto gli Archi serves Abruzzese cuisine in a rustic 16th-century building. Try traditional antipasti such as pork liver salami, prosciutto and the freshest ricotta. The speciality pasta of the area is also rustled up in the kitchens: strips of chitarrini are made using a guitar-shaped tool to shape the pasta sheets. A breakfast spread of home-made pastries, tarts and cakes is laid out in the bar every morning.
• Dress code Humble hemp and cotton to match the ancient earthen surroundings.
• Top table Close to the huge fireplace when the mountain temperature drops.
• Last orders Breakfast from 8am until 10.30am, lunch between 1pm and 3pm and dinner from 8pm until 10pm. The bar shuts at 11pm.
• Room service None.
• Hotel bar Head to La Cantinone in the cosy wine cellar for aperitifs and antipasti. If the local red doesn’t take your fancy, the digestifs will: try the bitter herb-based genziana, or the sweet cherry ratafia. There’s also the Liquorificio, where a selection of local liqueurs are offered, as well as benches with digestifs dotted around the communal areas.

Also worth knowing

• Weddings This property is suitable for weddings. More...

Sextantio Albergo Diffuso Via Principe Umberto, Santo Stefano Sessanio, Abruzzo, 67020