Eat delicious Pugliese fare in an Italian castle,
Italy’s best new hotel dishes out garden-to-table delicacies in a 400-year-old castle
IT’S never too late for a second act. Massimo Fasanella d’Amore spent 33 years as a jetsetting exec for PepsiCo and Procter & Gamble. But he could never quite shake fond memories of the vacation home of his childhood: a limestone castle at the center of Ugento, a village in southern Italy’s Puglia region, where his grandfather hosted him every summer. In 1643 d’Amore’s ancestor — a lord, naturally — acquired the fortress, festooned with ornate moldings, pointed arches and painted frescoes.
Over time, d’Amore bought out his relatives for sole ownership and spent $14 million on an all-consuming restoration and renovation process with his partner Diana Bianchi. The four-year project turned the dreamy (but dated) castle into a nine-suite boutique hotel with a farm-to-table restaurant and cooking school. The castle opened in April (from $464; Castello DiUgento.com).
Located in the heel of the boot of the country, Puglia has become more popular over the last few years as a lesstouristed alternative to points north. Still, visitors tend to stick to the craggy coastlines of the Adriatic and Ionian seas. Until, perhaps, now.
A 15-minute drive inland, Ugento (pop. 12,500) is a slice of workaday life. It is a place so petite that one church’s bells resound throughout, where crooked streets are too narrow for a modern car, and stumbling across tiny squares where residents take their nightly walks, or passeggiate, is a charming ritual. The golden hours, when the sun goes down and sets the creamy stonework aflame, are magical.
Buildings can have second acts, too. Under high ceilings, the luxurious yet simple guest rooms allow the original architecture to shine through — think stone walls 3½ to 12 feet thick — while adding the latest conveniences, from a rain shower to high-speed Wi-Fi.
Though municipal signs point to it as a landmark, the castle had not been open to the public. Now anyone can come inside to feast on fare dreamed up by top chef Odette Fada and local wunderkind Tommaso Sanguedolce.
They tend to a walled garden dating back to the 17th century with herbs, fruits and vegetables. From Pugliese specialties like handmade orechiette pasta to meltingly delicious burrata, their food is easily on par with Michelin-starred spots.
In the palazzo’s new “museum wing,” where the d’Amore family once ate, slept and entertained, glowing ceilings are bedecked with mythological figures. If d’Amore is around, implore him to lead a walk-through; he’ll dredge up totemic tales and secret backstories of the paintings. One of his favorite topics: Surprise discoveries, including evidence of an even older castle dating back to Norman times underneath the hotel. In a space now used for events — off the former stables turned breakfast room — is a fresco that could well be from the Normans’ conquest of southern Italy 1,000 years ago. Imagine that.