Vista Ostuni occupies a limestone palazzo in Ostuni, Puglia, repurposed from a mid-20th-century tobacco-sorting factory into a boutique hotel emphasizing panoramic coastal vistas. The property belongs to Lario Hotels, a four-generation family group led by Bianca Passera, and joins a trio of 'Vista' resorts designed around spectacular outlooks. An enclosed courtyard lobby frames the Adriatic and surrounding olive groves through an oversized arch. Rooms span three floors beneath soaring cross-vault ceilings, often with mezzanine layouts, vintage seaside decor including cannage furniture and Picasso-like portraits, and a mix of sea-facing and church-overlooking vistas.
It was one of those travel days that had me reconsidering things: I was up before the sun to make an early flight, packed on to a budget flight next to an ebullient, bouncy bambina, and then left to wait an hour at the airport because my prebooked taxi was delayed. All this to say, I wasn't in the sunniest mood when I arrived in the so-called Città Bianca (White City) of Ostuni in southern Italy's sun-drenched region of Puglia. That changed as soon as I caught a glimpse of the new Vista Ostuni.
"When I first saw it, I knew immediately we had found the right place for our next hotel," says Bianca Passera, president of Lario Hotels, a four generation-strong coterie of six Italian properties. Three of those resorts are branded as "Vista" hotels-a nod, of course, to their spectacular views. We chatted over caffè leccesi (espressos poured over ice and almond syrup) then toured the enclosed courtyard lobby. Passera heaves open an oversized door to reveal a perfectly framed arch of Adriatic Sea, still as silk from this distance, against a silver-green stripe of olive groves.
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