Diary
We met by a cold winter day at a terrace café. Marie Faure Ambroise was returning from Korea and I had a three-hour night and yet, in our sleep deprived coffee routine, the minute we met it was like setting fire to a dry field of wheat! We talked about a thousand things we both already forgot but I didn’t forget our shared love for travel, adventures with kids and gems hotels off the beaten tracks. If you don’t know her website yet My Travel Dreams – or in fact don’t know where you’ll be spending summer yet, rush over to her website, it is a goldmine of information! Luckily for you, we’ve made a selection of our favourite places to discover in Italy, Spain, Greece and France, enough inspiration to last the next five years!
Masseria Potenti, Puglia
“Masseria Potenti, c’est le rêve d’une famille milanaise, Paolo, Marie Grazia, Walter et Chiara. Ils sont solaires, généreux, aiment prendre soin des gens, profiter de la vie, le soleil, les fleurs, les beaux objets et leur berceau familial Les Pouilles. Là bas, seulement de la jolie vaisselle typique des Pouilles ( que j’ai ramené dans ma valise et qui me ravie chaque jour à Paris ), des grands draps élégants qui flottent au vent, une luminosité qui fait un bien fou après un hiver parisien, des gigantesques figuiers de barbarie, des fleurs absolument partout où l’oeil se pose ( le père adore cueillir des fleurs, faire des bouquets et les accrocher partout), une cuisine italienne à tomber, raffinée et simple à la fois. Ils font tout eux mêmes, huile d’olive, vin, etc…
My Travel Dreams, C.a potenti, 74024 Manduria, Puglia / Tel: +39 099 973 5408
Villa Lena, Tuscany
"I heard a lot about the Villa Lena, a group of Italian houses lost in the middle of the olive trees, in Tuscany. The hotel can welcome around 40 guests and hosts artists too. We sleep in former stables, we rent a farmhouse with swimming pool, a small palace of 4 bedrooms. .. At night, we gather all around a big dining table, we can jump in 3 of the big communal swimming pools, we have a drink or two in a farmyard building, we discover right behind an oak-tree a playroom or a little cinema. Paradise, if I say so myself"
Villa Lena Foundation / Via comunale di Toiano, 42 56036 Palaia PI / (+39) 0587 083112 / 63 km from Florence International Airport / 45 km from Pisa Galileo Galilei Airport
Zu Nilu, Sicily
"Perched above its own labyrinthine Roman stone quarry, into which a beautiful pool and a Mediterranean garden has been inserted, Zu Nillu is theatrical, wow-inspiring and a truly unique proposition! You simply won’t find any house quite like this, and certainly not one with a private garden dominating (and accessing) Favignana's mythical Cala Rossa, one of the Med’s most beautiful sea spots."
The Thinking Traveler, 91023 Favignana TP, Italie