Tenuta Negroamaro, a Hotel Grown From the Landscape of Southern Puglia

Tucked among the sun-drenched vineyards of southern Puglia, just a short drive from the crystalline waters of the Ionian coast, Tenuta Negroamaro sits within one of Italy’s most captivating landscapes. The scenery here shifts between ancient olive groves, unruly wildflower fields and crumbling stone ruins (some dating back thousands of years). The understated luxury hotel feels perfectly in step with the region’s unhurried rhythm, presenting itself as a quiet countryside retreat. However, its slow-living atmosphere is anything but accidental – much of it shaped by interior designer Olga Ashby, whose thoughtful, tactile approach quietly elevates the entire property.

“We were not the first choice,” Ashby tells AnOther. Initially brought on after the original architectural team missed the mark, her boutique London-based studio – better known for residential interiors – took on the project through a personal connection. What followed was something closer to a love letter to the land than a conventional hotel refurbishment. “I decided to spend a week exploring Puglia, meeting local people, and feeling the local vibe,” she says. The result is a hotel that feels deeply connected to its surroundings, with earthy design choices – such as sisal rugs, unpolished stone and raw linens – that echo the tones and textures of the landscape. “All the earthy colours I’ve seen outside I’ve brought in,” she says. “It provides a common thread and merges indoor and outdoor.”

The goal is less about impressing guests and more about creating a sense of calm. Ashby wanted the space to feel welcoming, above all else: “I wanted guests to feel like they were coming back home, or to a friend’s house,” she explains. Every space feels soft and welcoming: whether that’s the breezy, communal lounge spaces or the luxurious private pool suites. “People living in the city with the hustle and bustle of everyday life started to forget the sound of silence. So our idea was to ground them, reconnect them to nature, and make them start feeling again.”

Nature is everything at Tenuta, and the hotel’s design wraps around existing flora, rather than cutting through it. “I didn’t want to cut one tree,” Ashby says. “We worked around plants, integrating them into the design.” There is a vast garden, filled with flowers and plants of every colour (a rarity in the region, and looked after meticulously by a full-time army of gardeners). Vegetables for the hotel restaurant are grown on-site, while goats and donkeys graze lazily beside them. The pool bar draws inspiration from the local figa d’India cactus, whose fruits are used to make the house spirit. The yoga gazebo nestles under pine trees chosen specifically for the shade and breeze they provide.

“People living in the city with the hustle and bustle of everyday life started to forget the sound of silence. So our idea was to ground them, reconnect them to nature, and make them start feeling again”

And then there is the light. “I watched the light for days to adjust the interiors accordingly,” Ashby says. “It all had to look accidental, of course.” That sense of controlled spontaneity is everywhere – from unframed Moroccan textiles nailed simply to the wall, to the pale, peach-washed walls that perfectly match the tone of the Salento sunset.

There is a term the owner used to describe the atmosphere he wanted to cultivate here: “no shoes, no news.” Ashby translates this into spatial form with a gentle hand and a deeply sensory palette. Time, in Tenuta Negroamaro, seems to expand, and the world outside recedes. “I’ve never been in a place where time literally stops,” Ashby says. “People come together every evening to watch the sunset, to cook, to just be. The experience was so grounding, I can’t imagine my summer without a week spent there.”