La Sommità Relais

The Terrazza Belvedere opens later than the dining service and is the most reliable place in Ostuni to watch sunset over the olive plain to the Adriatic, twenty kilometres east. Few of the day-tripping tourists who climb to the top of the old town know to come up here for an aperitivo — most guests have the terrace to themselves at the moment the light goes copper.

The pleasure of staying inside Ostuni's old town — rather than at one of the coastal masserie below — is the proximity. The Cathedral, the bishop's palace, the surviving medieval lanes, the small piazzas where the passeggiata gathers in the evening are all within five minutes' walk of the property's gate. La Sommità's position at the literal summit of the old town means every exit involves a downhill walk through the white limestone alleys; the return is a steep climb, which keeps the day's pace honest.

The restoration preserved the bones of the building rather than dressing them. The ground-floor courtyard, the vaulted Cielo restaurant in what was once the kitchen cellar, the cistern wine room carved into the rock — these are sixteenth-century spaces presented as they are, with contemporary furniture introduced sparingly. The suites above are larger than you expect from a town-palazzo conversion, some with private terraces facing the cathedral, others looking out over the olive plain to the coast.

Cielo, the restaurant, is the property's strongest single asset. The cooking is regional Puglian — almonds, lamb, sea urchin, the small-batch olive oils from named estates within twenty kilometres — done at a level rare in Ostuni proper. The set menus carry concrete signature dishes (the Catalogna with grilled lamb offal and sweet-sour lampascioni; the White City almond and pea dessert; the ravioli filled with gratinated mussels) that justify the meal as destination dining rather than hotel convenience.