Need to know
Rooms
15, including six suites.
Check–Out
11am. Earliest check-in, 3pm.
More details
Rates usually include a gourmet à la carte breakfast (eggs any-way, teas, juices, breads, garden picks, yoghurts, cold cuts, pancakes and more). For extra, you can add beech-smoked salmon, omelettes and eggs Benny.
Also
Not content with having the only pool in Ostuni, the hotel also has the largest garden, although you wouldn’t have guessed from the outside, with over 1,700sq m of lavender-scented lawns, herb and vegetable beds, and orange trees. Tables and chairs are set out for guests to idle away the afternoon with wine, and from chunks of ancient stone to avant garde sculptures to giant garden gnomes, there are some intrigues to explore throughout.
Hotel closed
The hotel closes annually throughout January.
At the hotel
Private garden, orange grove, wine cellar, spa, small boutique, laundry service and free high-speed WiFi. In rooms: welcome gift, iPad Pro loaded with useful info, a minibar with free soft drinks, linen bathrobes and slippers and free Fragrart bath products. A TV can be added on request.
Our favourite rooms
Each of the hotel’s suites is wonderfully unique, with antiques from far-flung corners of the globe, huge bath tubs, high frescoed ceilings and the odd private terrace or decorative fireplace. However, the Paragon Suite is something of a standout for the huge stone arch behind the bed, the circular two-person tub sunk into the French parquet and artfully weathered historic features, plus its suntrap terrace. And, the Onyx Suite stands apart from the rest for its dramatic all-black interiors lit with elaborate mod chandeliers.
Poolside
This is the only pool in the town of Ostuni – and it’s a good ‘un, at 15 metres long, with leafy views, a sun-bleached deck topped with shaded loungers, and its own bar.
Spa
Once the Palazzo Rosso’s water cistern, set seven metres below ground, this space now serves as the hotel’s well-equipped spa, which is available for an additional cost. Body treatments promise revitalising, toning and detoxifying, and massages borrow from Ayurvedic and Mediterranean practice, including ‘shirodhara’, where water droplets rhythmically fall on your head. But we recommend a ritual that mixes up treatments with spells in the Turkish bath, Jacuzzi and chromotherapy shower, followed by a snooze in the Himalayan-salt-lined relaxation room. Out-on-the-town touches include mani-pedis, make-up sessions, waxing and hair appointments (on request). In summer, you can take your massage in a private leafy courtyard of the garden.
Packing tips
Pack light if you have designs on the hotel’s, well, design. Occasionally the owners are willing to part with some of the one-off items and outré artworks they’ve found, so if something in your room catches your eye, all you need to do is ask. There are no TVs in rooms, so maybe slip in a few novels by fittingly Italian writers, such as Italo Calvino, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and Umberto Eco.
Also
Two rooms cater for guests with mobility issues, they’re not adapted, but are generously sized and have huge showers. Public areas – aside from some sections of garden – are accessible too, and there’s a lift.
Pet‐friendly
Bring your (small and medium) furry friends along for a supplement of €30 per day. There's a maximum of one pet per room, and a final cleaning fee of € 200. See more pet-friendly hotels in Puglia.
Children
Little ones and delicate antiques don’t mix, so only over-14s can stay here.
Sustainability efforts
The hotel’s eco-conscience is clear. The owners used local manpower when renovating the palace and took care to reduce carbon emissions and stay energy efficient. The hotel uses more environmentally sound micro-cogeneration heating and natural gas, it’s plastic free and uses very little paper, and the gardens are irrigated with rainwater. Dining is staunchly local, organic and seasonal, using short-chain suppliers, home-grown produce, local fishing crews and non-intensive farms.
