Paragon 700, Ostuni, Italy hotel review

Why e-book?
For its operatic rooms – with their splendid vaults and frescoes – and the one outside pool on the town.

Set the scene
This Pompeian-red 18th-century mansion (a type of cubic, rusticated-stone piles) lords over Ostuni, the medieval citadel at its ft. With a theatrical but intimate new look, stellar restaurant and colonnaded gardens, it’s quick turning into the hang-out of thespians, epicureans and hedonists searching for romantic seclusion and a child-free zone within the thrum of the città bianca.

The backstory
When globetrotting entrepreneurs Pascale Lauber and Ulrike Bauschke purchased the Purple Palace in 2016, the light noble palazzo was a shell of crumbling plaster and damaged glass that had been forgotten for practically half a century. It didn’t daunt them although, with their pocketbook of bijou accommodations and eating places, and so Lauber and Bauschke launched an bold restoration undertaking that took virtually 4 years, unveiling Neapolitan majolica flooring, wedding-cake stucco and honeyed stone vaults. Designer-architect Lauber conjured up a sequence of dramatic scene modifications, reworking an underground water cistern right into a salt-walled spa, an previous olive press right into a bistro and – in a ultimate coup de théâtre – a tumble of stones right into a walled citrus backyard.

The rooms
Interiors are eclectic but harmonious, frescoed narratives mixing with quirky Pythonesque artwork. The mise en scène is a riot of exotica: saffron sofas and cinnamon headboards from South Africa; elaborate sculptural lamps from Thailand; gazebos from India repurposed as bathtubs. Aesthetics conquer prosaic performance; native artisans cast iron, glass and linen screens to separate loos with out compromising the house. The moody, black Loft Suite invitations existentialist reflection, whereas the theatrical Paragon Suite has cathedral-style ceilings, a hearth and a sunken round bathtub. Throughout Puglia’s blazing summers, the sensible alternative is likely one of the terraced bedrooms with waterfall showers.

Food and drinks
In his tasting menus and tapas, chef Giovanni Cerroni (protégé of Paulo Airaudo) fuses Puglian traditions with recollections of his travels. Marinated purple prawns with smoked black thé, mushroom cappelletti and miso soup epitomise the combo of native and worldwide flavours. Tables are set within the Moorish-style walled gardens or within the barrel-vaulted bistro with its open kitchen. For aperitivi, loll beside the pool or perch within the undercroft bar that might be a set from Casablanca.

The spa
The penumbral spa was hewn from an previous water cistern, 23ft beneath floor, and is deliciously cool. Laze on flowered and candlelit beds beneath cavernous partitions coated in Himalayan salt.

The world
Within the southern Italian area of Salento, Ostuni is considered one of Puglia’s most eclectic cities: Messapians, Greeks, Romans and Normans got here, noticed and conquered; extra just lately, so many British expats have moved right here that the realm has been nicknamed Salentoshire. You would possibly assume your self in Mykonos as you are taking within the wine-dark sea from the belvedere on Corso Vittorio Emanuele II and get misplaced within the labyrinth of arched alleyways and lime-washed homes within the medieval citadel. For those who exhaust Cerroni’s menus on the hotel, it’s a brief stroll to the city’s wonderful eating places: Michelin-starred Cielo; Osteria del Tempo Perso, set in a cave; and Osteria Piazzetta Cattedrale, within the shadow of the voluptuous Fifteenth-century cathedral.

The service
Breezy and convivial – don’t anticipate white gloves and old-school decorum. Workers mingle in cool and crumpled linens; the charismatic homeowners – ever current – delight with tales of their itinerant lives.

Eco effort
Native and seasonal components within the restaurant; pure and natural merchandise within the spa and loos.

Accessibility for these with mobility impairments
There are two wheelchair-friendly bedrooms with raise entry to the bar, restaurant and backyard.

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