Puglia has taken the lead in southern Italy. The raw materials were always there – the towns, the food, the landscapes, the coastline, and the old manor houses, ripe for conversion to luxury hotels.

This quaint town in the Istria Valley is one of only a few in the region that preserved their traditional dry stone huts.

Anyone who’s visited Italy knows it’s home to a whole host of beautiful villages. There are snowy hamlets high up in the ...