Masseria Salinola Style

Masseria Salinola was once a salt house and has been in the family for generations. This historic building was renovated with great care and attention to detail, using only traditional methods and materials.

The result is a truly unique place to stay, where you can enjoy the quiet of the Puglian countryside while just a short drive from some of the region's most popular tourist destinations and the coast.

The rooms are incredibly cozy and styled with antique furnishings that are both simple and luxurious. Every tiny detail was taken care of to make you feel at home.

The white-washed walls, linen covering the chairs, the tile flooring, and olive branches in vases all added to the ambiance.

Each room is decorated differently; some have fireplaces, small outside seating areas, and kitchenettes which are great if you are traveling with small kids.

The shower in the room I stayed in was recently updated with rustic concrete walls and gold antique fixtures to give it a luxurious feel.

The family made the toiletries using olive oil from their olive groves. The products have a natural feeling, and the shampoo and soaps are lovely.

The olive oil helps nourish and condition your hair; the scent is gorgeous. I loved using these products. They have several different products that they produce on display in the dining room.

You can purchase whatever you want and have it shipped back to your home while you continue your journey around Italy. The bottles that they use are very posh.

Style & Rooms

The hotel has a relaxed, charming vibe, and I did enjoy the crazy murals they have in each bedroom. It's done in a modern, fun way and didn't feel over the top. Although it's a five* hotel, it's not pretentious, feeling very cozy and comfortable.

I love countries with ancient buildings and how they update them to modern life. They have to work with the structure they have; in this case, the exterior of the building is 16th-century Renaissance. It looks dull when you see exterior photos online, but they are not doing it justice.

We booked a superior room and loved it. A mural above the bed is inspired by Caravaggio's famous painting of “Amor Vincit Omnia” (photo above). The ceiling slanted quite steeply to one side of the room; we had to keep our heads down to get to the safe. At first, the feature seemed charming but got annoying after hitting my head a few times. Again, though, they are working with an ancient building and have to work around things like that. 

The superior rooms have more space; it was pretty big for hotels in Rome which are usually on the smaller side. The beds and luxury linens were incredibly comfortable, as were the soft bathrobes and fluffy slippers.

The room includes a desk where you can work if needed and free wi-fi; an armchair with footrest, electronic safe, free minibar, tea/coffee facilities, suitcase bench, and a 10% discount on spa treatments. The Hotel Indigo Rome's 64 rooms come with pillow menus, turndown service, luxury linens, Etro bath products, and an iron and ironing board in your closet. 

Matera is 5,000 years older than Rome and has been continuously inhabited for the last 9,000 years, making it the third oldest city in the world.

People first settled in Matera in Paleolithic times when woolly mammoths roamed the earth. Think about that for a few minutes, now imagine being in a cave and watching woolly mammoths walking by. How mad is that?

Around the Iron and Bronze Ages, the inhabitants, using metal tools, dug into the landscapes of soft volcanic stone to create cave dwellings, which we can see today.

Located in the Basilicata region of Italy, Matera is in the arch of the boot and is the most outstanding example of a troglodyte (cave dwellers) settlement in the Mediterranean region.

The Hotel

The Shame of Italy

Matera's recent history is a rags to riches story. In the early 1900s, not many people visited, which was considered the country's poor part. Matera was not on anyone's radar. 

Everything changed when, in 1935, Mussolini exiled Italian artist and activist Carlo Levi to Eboli, a town close to Matera, for speaking out against him. 

Southern Italy was always poorer than the North, but he was appalled by the level of poverty he witnessed.

Large families lived in caves with their livestock and had no access to electricity, plumbing, or running water. Children were dying of hunger or malaria.

He wrote a book called “Christ Stopped at Eboli” to vividly recount what he witnessed, which changed the course of Matera's history.

The book caused an uproar in Italy, and Matera was known as la vergogna Nazionale, the nation's disgrace.

In 1950 the Italian President visited Matera, himself appalled at people living in caves with livestock. He put together a plan to build a new housing development and move everyone out of the caves.

They forcibly relocated the inhabitants to a more modern development up the hill from the Sassi (the Italian word for stones). While this worked great for the younger generations, the older people lost a lot.