Masseria Fontanelle

Why it’s on the Edit

Masseria Fontanelle is a four-star hotel in a masseria at Torre San Giovanni, on the Ionian coast of Ugento. The register gives the address as Località Fontanelle, Torre San Giovanni, postcode 73059. Treat it as a hotel first: the Regione Puglia classes it as a four-star hotel with 38 rooms, not as a farm stay.

The hotel’s own line is slow living. It says it is not the usual masseria and that the past is reinterpreted in a contemporary key. The pages we could read give no date or history for the building, so ask if that matters to you.

The website links to Vivosa Resort, another property at Torre San Giovanni.

The rooms

The website lists four room types: Vista, Patio, Masseria and Junior Suite. The pages we could read give no sizes and no bed layouts, so the names are the only guide to what each offers.

The register adds what a room contains: central air conditioning and heating, a safe, a telephone, satellite television and a minibar. It also lists rooms for guests with disabilities, baby-sitting, a porter, luggage storage and a 24-hour reception.

The register files the hotel twice for 2021, with 98 beds in one entry and 114 in the other, so treat the exact bed count as unconfirmed.

Eating and drinking

The restaurant is Le Serre, listed under the website’s local-produce heading, Sapori a Km0. The same heading holds the Apulian Gin Bar.

The register also lists a bar and a snack point. The pages we could read give no menu, no chef and no opening days, so ask which evenings the restaurant is open and whether outside guests can book dinner.

The site’s list of amenities mentions tastings, so ask what is offered in season.

The setting

The masseria stands in the green of the Parco Naturale Litorale di Ugento, the coastal natural park around Torre San Giovanni. The sea is not at the gate, but the hotel says the white beaches of Marina di Torre San Giovanni, bathed in turquoise water, are a few minutes away. It lists a sea-view pool among its amenities.

The Regione Puglia describes the beach of Torre San Giovanni as one of the longest and most evocative in the south of Salento, with fine golden sand inside the regional park. Beach clubs dot it, and a large pine wood faces the clear sea over low dunes covered in Mediterranean scrub. Some holiday villages and campsites sit behind the sand.

North of the village the coast turns into a low cliff, and the small island of Pazze lies 200 meters offshore, an easy swim. The small leisure harbor is dominated by a sixteenth-century tower.

Weddings have their own entry in the site menu, so the hotel takes events. The pages we could read give no capacity.

Good to know

• The register lists the hotel as a four-star hotel with 38 rooms and 24-hour reception.
• The register lists baby-sitting among the services, so ask what is offered for children.
• The register’s two entries for the hotel give different opening periods for 2021 (March 1 to October 31, and June 4 to September 26), so check the current season.
• Not confirmed here: pets, children’s facilities, a spa and opening months.
• Price band: 2 of 5 (estimated: no official rate found).

Who it suits, and who should look elsewhere

It suits couples and families who want a four-star hotel with a pool and a restaurant near the Ionian beaches, and who do not need a historic farmhouse around them.

An old masseria with documented architecture, or a small place with a dozen rooms, is a different search. Masseria Macchiaforte rents eight apartments in an old manor house near Gallipoli, and Vivosa Apulia Resort, which the Fontanelle site links to, is in the same area.

Getting there

Masseria Fontanelle is at Torre San Giovanni, in Ugento, in the Gallipoli and the Ionian Salento area. Brindisi is the nearer of the two airports, and Bari is further north.

A car is the practical choice. The website lists an airport transfer in its contacts section, which is the easier way in if you would rather not drive on arrival.