Casa Emilia

Casa Emilia is a single-storey retreat set in three hectares of centuries-old olive groves, some of the trees over a thousand years old, just four minutes by car (or a 25-minute walk) from Ostuni along a quiet country lane. Sleeping six guests across three en-suite bedrooms, the house looks out over its own olive groves to the sea, the surrounding hills and the rooftops of Ostuni itself, all enclosed within stone walls behind an electric gate.

Inside, the architect-designed piccolo masseria holds a double living area, its sunny west-facing sitting room arranged around a fireplace, opening off a vaulted kitchen that pairs a Bosch oven with an antique oak refectory table and monastery bench seating eight comfortably. Antique wooden doors, local stone floors and silent air conditioning run throughout, and the kitchen window looks onto the aranceto, a walled citrus courtyard with its own vegetable garden of tomatoes, peppers, basil and aubergines.