What to Do

The villa's own harbour village — a working port where the morning catch, and famously raw sea urchins, is eaten at the water's edge. Walk the front at dusk, take a boat to the sea caves, and don't miss the ruins of ancient Egnazia just down the coast.

A whitewashed old town wrapped in sea walls, with a photogenic old harbour full of blue-and-red fishing boats. Wander the car-free lanes to the castle and the Baroque cathedral, then swim off Cala Porta Vecchia beneath the ramparts — lived-in and unhurried.

A white town on sheer cliffs above the Adriatic, famous for the little cove of Lama Monachile framed by a Roman bridge. Duck through the old arch into a maze of belvedere terraces, take a boat to the sea caves, and eat gelato between swims — the birthplace of "Volare".

Your nearest "real" town — a whitewashed centre of arches and small piazzas that most day-trippers skip. Come for an unhurried market morning and a coffee under the arcades; ten minutes on lie the seaside ruins of Egnazia.

The White City earns its name — a hilltop labyrinth of lime-washed houses stacked above a plain of silver olive groves running down to the sea. Climb to the late-Gothic cathedral, then lose the map; time it for an aperitivo on the Corso as the walls turn gold.

Puglia's UNESCO showpiece, unlike anywhere else — whole neighbourhoods of trulli, the conical dry-stone houses whitewashed and chalk-marked with old symbols. Wander the dense Rione Monti and step inside the two-storey Trullo Sovrano; go early or near dusk, when the crowds thin.

Fasano's hill station — a cool, wooded terrace of oak and pine that locals escape to when the coast bakes. The belvedere opens onto a vast sweep over the Valle d'Itria and the sea, and the shaded avenues are lined with early-1900s Liberty villas, a few degrees cooler than below.