Masseria Torre Coccaro

The home course is a nine-hole executive, par 27, of about 1,150 metres, 400 metres from the masseria. It runs up and down through ancient olive trees, almond trees and water hazards, with glimpses of the sea. The hotel's offers call it Coccaro Golf Club; its golf page now presents it as the golf club of neighbouring Masseria Torre Maizza, the Rocco Forte hotel. There is a driving range, a putting green, a pitching green and a bunker area, and golf pros teach beginners, experienced players and children.

This is a course for sharpening the short game rather than for a championship round. For that, the hotel points to San Domenico Golf, 1 km away: 18 holes, par 72, about 6,300 metres, and the venue of the Challenge Tour final. It also warns that the club accepts outside players only at certain times, and suggests calling the club directly to find out when. The hotel's list includes four more 18-hole courses further afield, from Acaya to Barialto.

The masseria began as a fortified farmhouse in the 16th century, its whitewashed tower part of a chain of defences against Saracen raids. A century later came the Ortus Conclusus, a walled kitchen garden still watered by gravity through old wells and channels, and in 1730 the chapel. The estate is owned and run by the Muolo family.

Accommodation ranges from standard rooms, some set in caves, to suites in the tower and the Presidential Villa; many suites and villas have a private pool. The Michelin Guide has awarded the hotel one Key.

The main restaurant, Egnathia, fills the old stables under 17th-century star vaults and cooks with produce from the masseria's organic farm. By the pool, Cabana keeps things casual. On the coast, Coccaro Beach Club sits on a private sandy cove and serves fish and sushi, while Le Palme pairs seafood with pizza on a long beach.

The Aveda spa is dug into natural caves, with an indoor pool, Turkish bath, whirlpool and a glass-walled Technogym gym looking out on the olive trees. One-to-one yoga and Pilates lessons are free.

This is a family-minded masseria. In summer there is an all-day kids' club, a playground with water slides, a cookery school and riding stables. According to Michelin, extra beds for children aged 4 to 12 cost €110 a night. The hotel also works through the winter, at least over the holidays: its three-night New Year package includes the New Year's Eve gala dinner, with fireside lounges and a cigar room.

• The 1730 chapel has drawn pilgrimages from the fishermen of Savelletri ever since, and Mass is still said there.
• The olive groves are more than 800 years old, yet the family dates the old oil mill and the sheep pens cut into the caves to around the year 1000.
• Rainwater cisterns built across the estate centuries ago by the Marchese Palmieri have been restored and are back in use.
• In March the almond trees on the golf course bloom; a small lake comes into play on holes 2 and 8.