Pink house by Porto Selvaggio

Inside, the mood is calm and elemental. Vaulted ceilings, mineral plasterwork and a continuous cocciopesto floor, a traditional Italian lime and terracotta finish, run through the rooms, while two colours, soft pink and deep blue, thread through the house and catch the light. Around one hundred and sixty square metres hold three bedrooms for up to seven guests, three and a half bathrooms, a living room with a fireplace, an indoor kitchen and a separate summer kitchen for long lunches in the open air.

Outside, a swimming pool of twelve by three and a half metres lies along the garden, with three sun terraces set for morning shade and evening light, a barbecue and a wood-fired pizza oven. Photovoltaic panels cover much of the electricity and hot water, the water is drawn from a well on the land, and nothing rises above the olive trees, so the house reads as part of the landscape rather than an object placed on it. Baroque Nardò is twelve kilometres away, with Lecce and Gallipoli both within half an hour.