Masseria Torre Coccaro, Puglia, Italy.

Masseria Torre Coccaro began life as a 16th century fortified watchtower and was converted into a 37-room, five-star hangout in 2002. It highlights all the good things in life like simple fresh food, flowers on the table and taking the time to chill. With meandering lounges, outdoor areas where you can relax on big sofas and leaf through books like David Bailey’s Locations, there’s plenty of that. The outdoor pool has pretty coloured flags and dark loungers or you can retreat to the cottage garden with its olive tree hung hammocks. The hotel can arrange picnics on Persian rugs with flames surrounding you at sunset. If you want something more taxing there’s an on-site cookery school where you can learn to cook a typical Apulian dish or bikes for the taking. Some rooms are built in cosy grotto-like caves or in the original watchtower, while classic rooms have red shuttered doors with lace curtains at the windows, white-washed stone walls, domed ceilings and traditional furniture such as distressed white wooden wardrobes. Beds are covered with locally embroidered throws and a canopy overhead makes it quite bridal. Claudia Schiffer and Matthew Vaughan stayed in the Orange Suite. The unusual Aveda spa is set in an underground grotto. Treatment rooms are candlelit and there is a small indoor pool under the rocks. Treatment Torre Coccaro involves olive-oil paste (made from olives in the garden) being massaged into the hair and scalp and wrapped in hot towels.

It’s a short drive to the hotel’s private beach club on the Adriatic. With sushi bar, exclusive fish restaurant and cocktail bar with live music after dark, there’s nothing to do but chill out. Private gazebos are available for massages by the sea from the Aveda Spa. More active couples can play volleyball or hire the hotel’s private yacht. Yet despite all the sophistication, the hotel still keep chickens and retains its rustic heart.

Nestling in the heel of Italy is the rustically chic region of Puglia - long touted as the new Tuscany, it has a totally unique heart and soul of its own. With its miles of incredible beaches and dunes, whitewashed conical trulli houses, cave dwellings and the Grottos of Castellana, there is much to explore. Alberobello is the capital of the trulli conic shaped houses that are full of magical signs for good fortune and eternal love. Fashion-mad Lecce combines a youthful buzz with its memorable Baroque architecture. Lose yourselves in the white kasbah of Ostuni, a Greek style town overlooking the sea. For more adventurous honeymooners, mountain biking and horse riding is a dream in this largely rural part of Italy. Foodies will be in heaven. More than 80% of Italy’s pasta is produced here. Bread is a religion with hundreds of different kinds. Antipasta is an art form and the local wine is improving year by year.

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