Two thousand years of olive trees
About
Twenty-five acres of protected countryside below the white city of Ostuni, a small collection of villas, lamias and trulli, restored and let so that the landscape around them and its authenticity are preserved.
Town and countryside, four minutes apart
01 - The Place
On the farm, guests stay in the villas, lamias and trulli set among the olive groves. They may also stay in our nineteenth-century town houses in Ostuni itself, behind the main square, with rooftop terraces looking out over the groves to the Adriatic. It is an unusual combination: hilltop town in the evening, open countryside by day. Every guest, town or country, has access to parts of the estate throughout their stay.
The estate sits in the undulating protected farmland beneath Ostuni, among monumental olive trees, some of them two thousand years old. Two rustic lanes, walled in centuries-old dry stone, run down through the groves: twenty minutes on foot toward the sea, or upward into the hills.
Each house is furnished in the Puglian manner: authentic pieces, antique pots planted with succulents and cactus, whitewashed vaults, cool stone floors.
Tourism in the service of the landscape
02 - Why we do it
Puglia House Farm exists to keep this landscape and its heritage intact. The estate is farmed organically: olives above all, alongside almonds and figs. The oil we press is an exceptional extra virgin.
The greatest threat is Xylella fastidiosa. To save the monumental trees we work at the forefront of preventive grafting and post-graft care, funded directly by the rentals, and we hope to begin planting resistant varieties alongside them.
Next comes biodiversity: new vines, woodland of local oak and pine, indigenous carob, and ground crops to regenerate the soil. This work feeds into the new carbon-avoidance protocols, and a stay here pays for it.
25
acres of protected agricultural estate
2,000
years, the age of the oldest monumental trees
100
acre AMO Puglia conservation zone around us
Take one tree into your care
Adopt a Tree
Guests can adopt a registered, numbered monumental olive tree and collect a litre of its oil each year. It is the simplest way to stay involved once the holiday is over.
Days shaped by the season
Through spring, summer and autumn we run a small programme of events, open to every guest and kept deliberately informal. Casa Rocco is also available on request for private lunches and dinners.
Farm-to-table lunches and dinners
Olive oil and wine tastings
Pizza evenings and pasta classes
Summer sunset aperitivo
Accompanied walks and cycling tours
Harvest days, with a visit to the oil press
Preserving Puglia's monumental trees
03 - AMO Puglia
We sit inside the hundred-acre conservation zone of the AMO Puglia association and work alongside its team, the agricultural cooperative, our press partners, the farmers and neighbours around us. Every bottle sold makes a contribution to the association's groves.
The oil can be ordered online through the year, and guests who wish to go further become goodwill ambassadors. They gather orders among friends, a club or a workplace, then host a tasting of the new oil after the November harvest, around UNESCO World Olive Tree Day. Shipping in a single case of twenty-four rather than one bottle at a time keeps the carbon cost down. We send a complimentary litre and 100ml tasting bottles with it.
We plan days out to the other historic towns and masserie, and book the restaurants we genuinely use: family-run and unpretentious, or serious when the occasion asks for it. We can also arrange a beach day at Lido Stella, transfers and bicycle tours included.
Itineraries and reservations
04 - Before you arrive
Order organic vegetables and fruit from the farm, local mozzarella and ricotta, wine, a bottle of limoncello and your own AMO Puglia oil before you travel, and find them waiting when you open the door. Simple luxury is not losing an afternoon of the holiday to the supermarket.
The house, already stocked
With family, friends and guests together, we believe we can keep this extraordinary corner of the countryside as it is, for the generations after us. Come and see it.