Masseria Torre Coccaro

Masseria Torre Coccaro –
experience an authentic sense of place in the Slow lane

From the moment you pass through the miles of ancient olive groves and enter through the lime-washed arch, with a tall fortification tower accessed via a dramatic flying-buttress-of-a-staircase on the right, and with a charming 17th century consecrated chapel on the left, you can’t fail to feel a sense of place. You are in Puglia – and everything about the Masseria Torre Coccaro reminds you of this blissful fact.

If like me, you can’t stand to be intensively farmed in a tourist factory of a hotel; and instead you yearn to experience the story of the place you’re visiting – experience a living continuous narrative since time immemorial; and if like me you seek places to stay that confidently reflect the genius of the place – without pastiche or dispiriting Disneyfication, then at the Masseria Torre Coccaro you have indeed hit the jackpot.

This elegant five star resort is a sensitively restored 16th century fortified farmhouse – or Masseria – with a watchtower built by the Knights of Malta, to ward off invading Turks. Far more welcoming now, the rustic architecture and bucolic environment belies the luxurious and refined interior decor and facilities across its 36 rooms and suites.

It also belies its close proximity to the Adriatic, and the resort’s own beautifully designed Masseria Torre Coccaro beach club, giving you the best of both worlds. But if you can’t be bothered to take the 2km drive to the coast, the resort’s swimming pool with it’s graduated seaside colours gives you the clever illusion of being on the beach, on your doorstep.

The main courtyard feels like a charming village square bounded by a capriccio of 16th to 18th century buildings, and adorned with gnarled olives and carobs that are magically garlanded with fairy lights. The chapel built in 1730, still holds mass and is a point of pilgrimage for the fishermen living in the little coastal village of Savelletri.

The convivial village atmosphere is enhanced by the rustic tables and chairs that are set out for meals. The courtyard is also the setting for a traditional carnival for Ferragosto, the Italian holiday in mid-August with food stalls, jugglers and bands.

All around an evocative bedrock of volcanic tufa breaks through the earth to remind you of the geological turbulence that eons ago carved out this rugged landscape.

Lecce Stone – the Poor Man’s Marble 

It is this local limestone that both defines the landscape of Puglia with its stunning cliffs and caves, and historic urban centres like Lecce. The easy availability of this limestone also meant that not just palazzi or cathedrals but even the most rustic buildings, like the farm buildings at the Masseria Torre Coccaro, could be constructed of stone. And stone is one of the most striking characteristics of Coccaro, it is not only the visible bedrock on which it sits, it is its buildings with its vaults, fireplaces, animal feeding troughs, caves, grottos, garden walls, seats and pergolas.

Known in the past as ‘the poor man’s marble’, the secret of the famous Lecce Stone is that it is exceptionally soft and easy to work with. On the flip side, in time its softness also causes the stone to appear to melt like hot wax dribbling down a candle, which you see on some coastal historic buildings, where the salty atmosphere prevents the protective lichen from flourishing.

It is this quality of the local stone that has helped create the drama of Puglia, as water has over millennia carved out the many coastal pools and caves. Many of these striking natural features have historically been converted into houses, and stables, and more recently at the Masseria Torre Coccaro and elsewhere, into restaurants, hotels and spas.

The Spa at the Masseria Torre Coccaro

And it is the spa at the Masseria Torre Coccaro, accessed via a short descent below the volcanic rock shards in the gardens, that is one of its most striking highlights. Once you’ve passed through some underground annexes and changed into your swimming costume, a bright blue pool reveals itself at the heart of an incredibly atmospheric thousand year old grotto.

Had our ancestors stumbled onto such a sight, they would doubtless have believed that they had discovered the elusive fountain of youth. Whilst I’m fairly certain that the Coccaro spa does not promise you the miraculous elixir of life, these old caves that were once used as olive mills, now house an Aveda spa, using only plant based essences, a steam room, gym and treatment rooms, helping to keep you young… within reason of course!

Masseria Torre Coccaro Rooms

The sensitive lightness of touch and creativity in the conversion of the old farm buildings with its farmer quarters, dovecote, animal stables and olive stores, has provided an exciting variety of accommodation experiences.

At the Masseria Torre Coccaro you can stay in grand barrel vaulted rooms with stone fireplaces and romantic views over the olive groves to the sea beyond. You can also stay in a large vaulted suite adjacent to the chapel, from which you walk out onto a private terrace with a hammock, grape-vine and magnificent views. There are suites with private gardens and villas with private pools. But in vividly picturesque contrast, you can also stay in a fairytale grotto with its own citrus planted orchard courtyard, and a pool fed from an ancient well.

Gardens at the Masseria Torre Coccaro

The Coccaro gardens with their thousand year old olive trees, now throughout Italy tragically under threat from a bacterium that lives in their woody hearts, has long attracted global visitors and filmmakers alike.

These majestic sculptural trees with impressive girth, are truly humbling to behold. A large walled vegetable and flower garden invites you to walk down damask rose-perfumed stone pergolas, and enjoy a hazy lazy afternoon on ancient stones in the generous shade of a fig or pomegranate tree. Encircled by the original fortifications, this traditional hortus conclusis is abundant in grape-vines, herbs, radishes, chicory, courgette and artichokes – all eventually finding their delicious way onto your plate.

More than a trace of the ancient world of the Pugliese farmer is all around – but thankfully without the sweaty toil and hardship. Instead you sleep, bathe, and eat like a visiting emperor.

As Puglia is a foodie paradise, you will find at the Masseria Torre Coccaro, mouthwatering fruit, vegetables that actually have taste, fresh fish, incredible bread and cheese varieties, and then of course there is the unbeatable local wine.

The Coccaro gardens and orchards produce extra virgin olive oil, marmalades, pickled capers and even liquors made by the skilful Coccaro barmen. And if you want to sample rustic dishes that Pugliese farmers may themselves have relished, there is a delicious cucina povera (rustic dishes) menu, including regional staples such as handmade orechiette pasta with fresh sugo, or fave e cicori, a velvety fava bean puree topped with stewed chicory.

The farm-to-fork principle at the Masseria Torre Coccaro’s main Egnathia restaurant means that all produce has certified traceability, and is either grown at the Masseria or sourced from local suppliers.

There are of course many Masseria hotels and resorts in Puglia in all different styles from rustic, to rockstar glam, from mid-century to arch minimalist, but  Masseria Torre Coccaro  is truly unique. Not only does it offer world-class facilities but it hits exactly the right note in its design and styling. No chichi flourishes here, Coccaro is instead designed to look ‘un-designed’, as if it has always existed and organically grown in time and place. Its chief ingredients are restraint and Slowness.

It was in Italy in the mid-80s that the Slow Movement was born, in a protest against the opening of a McDonalds in Rome. ‘Slow’ has evolved into something quite compelling and sophisticated now, and the Masseria Torre Coccaro is in many ways the perfect poster child for all its many aspects. In our hyper Fast age of tech-amplified, narcissistic, low-attention vacuous consumerism, Coccaro immerses you in the local culture, invites you to slow right down, look around… and take a delicious breath.