Masseria Torre Maizza, a Rocco Forte Hotel

Dinner at Masseria Torre Maizza is served in the stables, and the drinks in the barn. Carosello, where Fulvio Pierangelini cooks the food of Puglia, keeps the high whitewashed ceilings of the old stables, with rustic pews and the garden in the windows. Bougainvillea, the bar, sits under the arches of the 16th-century barn; bougainvillea, the plant, pours magenta over a stone terrace of potted citrus and rattan chairs. The pool is a long rectangle in timber decking, and down one side old stone columns carry a pergola of vines over the loungers. Past the walls, olive and almond groves run towards the Adriatic, with the golf course laid out among them: nine holes, par 27, 1,150 metres, short enough to play before lunch.

Recommended for families and couples who would rather see Puglia's coast from an olive grove than a sunbed, any time from April, when it reopens after the winter. The sea is a free shuttle ride away, at the hotel's beach club, Lido Bambù, on the white sand at Capitolo, and the trulli of Alberobello are about twenty-five minutes inland by car. Children of any age are welcome, and there is no club to send them to: babies eat free, babysitting runs round the clock on request, and under-twelves sleep free in existing beds. Cooking classes can begin at the port, choosing the catch of the day with the chefs. Guests write fondly of the piano bar and know its pianist, Mino, by name. Dinner can also leave the stables altogether, for a candlelit picnic under the olive trees.