Puglia, Italy

Masseria Donna Menga

Price per night from$835.15

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (inclusive of taxes and fees) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (EUR730.01), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Masseria Donna Menga Photos

Style

Vaulted healing

Setting

Fruitful farmland

Explore

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Honeyed limestone, aromatic greenery and vast blue skies — this is the classically Pugliese palette of Masseria Donna Menga in Salento. At this restored 15th-century farmhouse, rustic original features backdrop bespoke modern pieces by local craftspeople. Spend restful days sketching a course between the pool, boutique spa and polished Salentini restaurant, or set out through the painterly, Mediterranean landscape to baroque Nardò and white-sand Ionian beaches. Either way, this is life alla campagna elevated to an artform.

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A welcome drink each, a bottle of wine and some typical Salento sweets

Facilities

Photos Masseria Donna Menga facilities

Need to know

Rooms

21, including five suites.

Check–Out

2.30pm. Check-out is at 11am, but both are flexible, subject to availability.

More details

Rates include a breakfast of fresh-baked bread, sweet and savoury cakes, eggs, cured meat, cheese, and homegrown salads and fruit.

Also

One Deluxe Room with Patio has been adapted for wheelchair access with widened entry points and a modified bathroom. The hotel's communal areas, including public bathrooms, are accessible, too.

Hotel closed

The hotel opens annually from April to October.

At the hotel

Paid laundry service and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: TV, air-conditioning, coffee- and tea-making kit, minibar, free glass-bottled water, beach bag, flip flops, Technogym fitness kit, bathrobes, slippers and La Bottega bath products.

Our favourite rooms

Make the most of the Pugliese weather with one of Masseria Donna Menga’s rooms or suites with a private patio or balcony.

Poolside

At the centre of the masseria’s peaceful inner courtyard, you’ll find the adults-only pool (open 8am to 8pm daily). Sun-soak out on the Lecce stone patio or thumb through a paperback under the pergola, as bees drowse between the succulents and a sea breeze skims the dry-stone wall.

Spa

Puglia’s native goodies are the inspiration behind treatments at the masseria’s spa. Options include Mediterranean Sea salt scrubs, mint-scented hammam rituals and massages working with lemon, thyme and Salento olive oil. There's also an outdoor fitness area with Technogym equipment in the courtyard — in handy reach of both the pool and the bar (whichever your post-workout process entails).

Packing tips

Bring shoes sensible enough for Nardò’s cobblestone streets and strolls alla campagna.

Also

There are stories of upcycling and unexpected provenance woven throughout the masseria’s interiors. Take the woven bedside lamps — they were made by Pugliese fishers the designers met on a sourcing trip.

Pet‐friendly

Masseria Donna Menga is not pet-friendly. See more pet-friendly hotels in Puglia.

Children

Welcome, but not especially catered to — the pool is for adults only. A single sofa-bed can be added to the Suite with Patio, Suite with Plunge Pool and Two-Bedroom Tower Suite for a charge.

Sustainability efforts

The masseria heats water using solar panels, has a photovoltaic system to produce its own energy, and treats and reuses wastewater for irrigation in the grounds. They eschew plastic wherever possible — the bar uses glass straws and bottles, and you’ll find compostable coffee capsules and full-size, refillable containers for bath products in rooms.

Food and Drink

Photos Masseria Donna Menga food and drink

Top Table

The restaurant's courtyard terrace, framed by lush Mediterranean greenery, is a fitting spot to tuck into Salento’s homegrown dishes.

Dress Code

Mirror the masseria’s style with smart, contemporary pieces in natural fabrics.

Hotel restaurant

Set in what was once the masseria’s olive mill, Radici Restaurant puts a forward-thinking spin on centuries of culinary heritage. Chef Simon De Siato’s elevated, contemporary menus are firmly rooted in Salentini tradition, with ingredients grown in the kitchen’s organic gardens and orchard or sourced from local producers. Lunch is a sunny salad and antipasti affair; for dinner, expect handmade pasta, regional specialities like quataru (a fish and black garlic soup from Porto Cesareo), and rich, meaty secondi. Or save yourself the deliberation and opt for the five-course tasting menu, leaving the choice in De Siato’s skilled hands.

Hotel bar

The terrace is likely where you’ll find yourself migrating to come aperitivo o’clock. But don’t sleep on a seat at the counter at Radici Bar — set into an atmospheric limestone alcove in the restaurant, it makes a romantic spot to nurse a Negroni.

Last orders

Radici serves breakfast from 7.30am until 10.30am; lunch from 12.30pm until 2.30pm, and dinner between 7.30pm and 10pm. The bar pours till midnight.

Room service

You can order dishes to your room around the clock for a €20 fee.

Location

Photos Masseria Donna Menga location
Address
Masseria Donna Menga
Strada Donna Domenica
Nardò
73048
Italy

You’ll find Masseria Donna Menga in a secluded, rural spot on Puglia’s Salento peninsula, in easy reach of Nardò and the Ionian coast.

Planes

The hotel is around an hour’s drive from Brindisi airport. Staff can arrange transfers on request (from €150 to €250, depending on the number of passengers and bags).

Trains

Nardò Città is the nearest major train station, a half-hour drive from the hotel. Intercity services from Rome, Milan and other Italian hubs can take you as far as Lecce; from there, regional routes run to Nardò. Staff can arrange station transfers on request.

Automobiles

There’s free private parking at the hotel, including electric-vehicle charging stations. The hotel can arrange transfers into town or to nearby beaches, but you might want your own car for where-the-wind-takes-you drives through the countryside.

Worth getting out of bed for

Concierge staff can arrange guided nature walks through the olive-shaded countryside surrounding the masseria, or set you up with rented bikes for a freewheeling expedition along ancient sheep tracks. Trot through the storied scenery feeling suitably period on a guided horseback ride; or, for the full dolce vita experience, hire a vintage car. The Ionian coast is a short drive away; your hosts can reserve you a spot at Porto Cesareo’s beach clubs, but lower-key spots, such as golden-sand Spiaggia des Frascone, are in easy reach, too.

Also on the cards are local-led tours of Puglia’s cultural must-sees, including the baroque beauty of Nardò and Lecce, and, naturally, tours and tastings at the peninsula’s wineries and farms. Thanks to the hotel’s links with local artisans, you’ll have opportunities to dig deep into Salento’s rich heritage, too. Try your hand at pottery in ceramics capital Cutrofiano, chisel your own souvenir in a stonemasonry workshop, or book a cookery masterclass to swat up on traditional dishes.

Local restaurants

If you find yourself in Nardò for dinner, follow the candle-glow down a side street to Il Girone dei Golosi, a cosy trattoria where warm staff serve traditional, homemade comfort food. For excellent just-caught seafood, La Dispenza dei Raccomandati is highly recommended — its name doesn’t lie.

Local cafés

Watch the world go by over espressi and pasticciotti at all-day favourite Caffè Parisi. The sweet treat quest continues at Bar L’Angelica, a modern spot with enough cannoli, cornetti and bomboloni to keep the keenest sweet tooth happy.

Local bars

Nardò locals gather in Piazza Salandra, the city’s baroque central square, for their aperitivi. Join them at Caffè Parisi, an elegant stalwart on the piazza, or Circolo L’Azzardo, the type of characterful spot best shot on 35mm, where regulars and visitors squeeze shoulder to shoulder at the cherry-painted bar or spill out to pavement tables with their craft Negronis.

Reviews

Photos Masseria Donna Menga reviews

Anonymous review

By Mr & Mrs Smith

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this storied hotel in Salento and unpacked their beach bags and bottles of olive oil, a full account of their bucolic break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Masseria Donna Menga in Puglia… 

There’s no separating Masseria Donna Menga from the sun-warmed soil it calls home, and it’s not just because it's presided over this slice of Salento for 600 years. In the reimagining of this imposing farmhouse and olive mill as an intimate luxury retreat, every care has been taken to respect and reflect the landscape. 

Pared-back interiors champion traditional oak, iron and limestone, shaped by Pugliese craftspeople. The concierge shares the same ethos, orchestrating insider-led tours and workshops with local artisans. In a fine balancing act, the masseria stands firm in its heritage, with one eye on the future — from the restaurant’s homegrown-focused menu, down to the spa’s Ionian herb-infused treatments and the reclaimed, dry-stone wall that rings the pool. 

It’s seriously scrubbed up since the last olives were crushed here. Still, this stay's simplest Salentini pleasures — strolls through groves and orchards, sipping primitivo in a candlelit alcove — have stood the test of centuries.

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Price per night from $823.71

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