Conceived not as a conversion but as an entirely invented village, Borgo Egnazia was designed from the ground up by Pugliese architect Pino Brescia to feel as though it had always existed on this stretch of Itrian Valley coastline near Savelletri. Completed in 2010, the property takes its structural grammar directly from the masserie and medieval hill towns of southern Puglia — local pietra leccese limestone used throughout, the massing broken into interconnected low-rise blocks whose rooflines bristle with decorative chimneys and crenellations visible in the aerial views. Bougainvillea cascades over the pale stone parapets, while ancient olive groves press in from the perimeter, softening what might otherwise feel like a theme-park exercise in vernacular architecture into something genuinely atmospheric. The 63 rooms, 29 villas, and 92 masseria suites spread across the site with enough density to sustain the village fiction. Interiors by Ermanno Turco work entirely within a single tonal register — raw linen, undyed cotton, pale travertine floors, walls finished in rough plaster the colour of unbleached wool. Ceilings draped in gathered fabric soften each room into a kind of pavilion-within-a-room, while recessed niches carved directly into the stone walls hold ceramic vessels and dried botanicals in place of art. The restaurant runs beneath a sequence of barrel-vaulted arcades in the same limestone, tables dressed in white against the ancient-feeling stonework, wrought-iron candelabras and wicker baskets reinforcing the agrarian mood without tipping into rusticity. The pool terrace, edged in travertine, extends the palette outward toward the olive trees.

1hr drive from Bari (BRI) and Brindisi (BDS) airports

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