Sultry southern CHARM

Stretched along Italy's heel, Puglia offers a slice of the Italian good life, with peaceful hotels, indulgent meals and low-key glamour, says Lucy Thackray

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The first forkful is almost too divine. Thumbprint-sized nuggets of pasta drenched in a thick, terracotta sauce of sweet pumpkin, black pepper and mascarpone. Glistening jewels of pancetta sprinkled on top ooze their juices into the sauce, adding a naughty, salty note. I make a swooning face and hold my fork out to my partner, Giles. 'You are not going to feed me,' he laughs.

But this scene - a tiled terrace with simple tables and cushioned chairs, couples sloshing wines from ruby carafes, vines dangling from the pergola overhead, sun rippling off the pool -feels like it demands such a rom-com move. Along with the local pasta, orecchiette, and each other's company, we're gently sozzled on inky-dark, clove-spiced Negroamaro wine; the delicious, 3pm kind of tipsy where you're probably destined for a post-lunch snooze by the pool.

We're at Masseria Salinola (masseriasalinola.it), a farmhouse turned-boutique hotel in Puglia, Italy's sultry southern region that covers the heel of its 'boot'. Masserie are usually cream or whitewashed stone, and range from rather rustic to glam-rusted scythes and hefty grindstones often sit among tranquil gardens of prickly pear, citrus trees and grapevines, with nothing but olive groves or rugged coastal scenery for miles around.

Slow road trip