Hotel La Sommità

The idea of Italy as a holiday destination brings with it certain expectations, certain familiar scenes — from the palazzos and canals of Venice to the streets of Rome, buzzing with motorbikes; from the red roofs and vineyard rows of Tuscany to the cliff mansions of the Amalfi coast. Ostuni, then, seems like another world. A knotty assemblage of white stone buildings, clustered together atop a hill that rises alone from the plains of Puglia’s Adriatic coast. The view from Relais La Sommita’s patio, over the whitewashed rooftops and clotheslines of the town, across miles of low olive …