Design townhouse in Salento

Inside, roughly 270 square metres unfold over three floors. The living room sits beneath a sweeping barrel-vaulted ceiling, its pale plaster and stone floors set off by a fireplace, contemporary art and pieces collected with a careful eye. A fully equipped kitchen opens to a long dining table for ten, while a second outdoor kitchen extends the cooking and gathering into the garden. Every room balances the atmosphere of an ancient building with the comforts of a modern one: generous, light and quietly luxurious.

Outdoors, more than a thousand square metres of terraced Mediterranean garden descend across three levels: an entrance garden framed by a stone arch and banana trees, a pool terrace, and a large lower garden shaded by mature trees. A fifteen-metre lap pool stretches along a warm stone wall, with sunloungers, a pergola running the length of the house and an outdoor table set for fifteen. There is a table-tennis table, two heated outdoor showers and suntrap terraces that catch the light from morning to evening.