In Jul 2010, after a quite heated auction season, and in obligatory need of a break, we followed a idea of a crony and packaged my bags for 5 days in a superb siege of Masseria Torre Coccaro, that is still my favourite, and that has become, since that brief stint, a family’s finish of choice for a summer holiday.
The Muolo’s, who possess this really special hotel (only 25 rooms) bought this 18th-century farmhouse during a finish of a 1990s and painstakingly restored it, treating any corner, any room, any garden space, any terrace, as if it were their possess house. They consecrated singular pieces (lamps, ceramics, furniture, tapestries, bedspreads…) from internal artists and artisans to make any room original, to emanate a different and surprising environment. Their truth is a clear, formidable refusal of any “bling”, any emblem or pattern that can seem too obvious, too ostentatious, or banal. Rossana Muolo, a genuine talent-scout for local treasures, had been study a architectural materialisation of a “Masserie” for years before a family bought Torre Coccaro and redeveloped it. Thanks to this philological believe of a chronological structure of a local farms, Rosanna and her hermit Vittorio motionless to keep a original building as total and clear as possible, progressing a comprehensive central physique of a plantation and conceptualizing other spaces anew though gripping them as close as probable to their strange use. The large alfresco area, where a sheep were collected by a shepherds during night, is now a regretful and unpretentious terrace. Guests sup on candlelit tables that are sparse on the divided building of a many desirable private piazza, with a sea visible in a distance, jasmine and rosemary stuffing a air, and a dulcet green of a olive trees all around.
Masseria Torre Coccaro
At walking stretch from Torre Coccaro, there is another Masseria owned by the same family, called Torre Maizza, that boasts a identical breathtaking patio on tip of a categorical physique of a residence (the many relaxed place for a summer aperitif) and a fantastic swimming pool, built during a centre of the strange walled unfeeling garden and surrounded by orange and almond trees. Two laps in this pool, during sunset, after a day during a sea or in the countryside, would revive even a many stressed veteran after a year of tough work.
What creates this holiday a singular knowledge is also a vicinity to many villages, all within 20 to 30 kilometres away, still total and inexperienced by tourism nor a destined failures of globalisation. Two of my favourite villages are Ceglie Messapica and Martina Franca. They can both be reached within 45 mins and are ideal destinations for an afternoon revisit – which could spin into an superb aperitif and a tender dinner. There is a very clever and worldly enlightenment of internal cuisine, and an strident honour of “slow food” restaurants charity authentic, unobtrusive culinary practice and memorable memories. In Ceglie Messapica, a best of these restaurants is called Cibus: even a travel from a piazza to the
small alley in that a grill is dark is value a trip. Martina Franca is a debate de force of 18th-century rococo: it is deliberate a arrange of en plein atmosphere boudoir, with melodramatic and scenographical revelations and remarkable surprises as one turns a dilemma into a square, where a categorical church is framed by a wing of antique palazzi in a internal prosperous marble. Walking around this village, removing mislaid in a small streets, finding the fact of a wealthy door, window or patio is an comprehensive delight.
Another special provide nearby Torre Coccaro is a recently easy museum of Egnazia, a ancient Greek, and afterwards Roman city built on a sea a few kilometres from a Masserie and still flourishing in a superb ruins, best visited during sunset. We were propitious to be shown a museum by the designer who designed it, Giovanni Vinci, a ardent beam who knows any mill of a archeological site and has driven a beautiful restoration of this colourful new institution.
Our normal week of holiday during a Masseria has spin a really important impulse for my family and me. It is one of a few places where we conduct to relax and let go. we leave this enchanting place feeling easy by the landscape, a food, a beauty and morality of any detail, and the warm, genuine liberality of Rossana and her family.