Masseria Cervarolo,Ostuni,Puglia

This was the last night of our trip and we had booked a special place for it.

Masseria Cervarolo, just 6km away from the center of Ostuni, was a place for rest and relaxation. After a week driving through Puglia, (click here for more blogs on Puglia) wandering on foot for hours every day exploring all the stunning towns and villages, it was time to stop and refuel, and this was the perfect place to do so.

Recommended to us by Nadine Lear, at Lear Travel, it was one of the less expensive options when looking for luxury in Puglia. Despite the region being one of the more reasonable places to visit in Italy with regards to eating and drinking, some of the nicest hotels in the region, can be in excess of £500 per standard room per night. Here, with double classic rooms starting from £185 per night, depending on the season, it was one of the more affordable places to stay.

It’s not a large place to stay, made up of around roughly 20 rooms, yet felt very spacious both outside and in. There was an enormous pool area with plenty of space for people to spread out and not feel on top of each other, and also a nice area to sit at for lunch or for drinks at sunset.

Dinner in the evening was served in the gazebo, with views to the garden which were very tastefully lit. There was a 5-course tasting menu (no choices though you are asked when booking if you have any allergies) at €40 per head plus wine. No photos of the food, the OH doesn’t allow it, not that that ever stops me, but I just couldn’t sneak one in! I’d recommend trying the local wine, earlier, the barman at the pool had recommended an excellent local white for us, made from the lesser known grape Fiano, and for £12 a bottle we had another one for dinner! I would definitely suggest doing dinner here for at least one night if you’re staying for a longer period of time.

The rooms were spaced out around the grounds. We were in a top level room with the entrance through the quaint courtyard and up some steep stairs. There were 3 rooms in our block but we never saw the other occupants. Again the rooms were small but we never felt squashed!

We had the whole day free the next day and had planned to sit by the pool all day even though we had to check out at 10.30 but sadly, it was not to be. We woke up to rain. So off we went for some more exploring before our flight back home, well our Italian home, Tuscany!

We took a day trip to Taranto, by which time the rain had stopped, not much there but nice shops and restaurants and giant sandwiches, and if you’re a fan of maritime history, then it’s a good place to visit. Oh, I nearly forgot, it’s also a good place to visit if you want to organise a stylish funeral. With Mazerati hearse’s parked in the streets!

We ended up in the centre of Ostuni for no longer than an hour! Only had time for one cocktail, so I made it a Bellini of course! That was our one mistake of the whole trip! We should have spent longer in Ostuni. BUT it means we can go back again to do it properly. It was so pretty and a larger version of all the other historical centres we had visited and I wouldn’t hesitate to suggest that you go for a visit or even better, stay there.