Private hilltop villa with infinity pool ideal for your visit to Puglia.

I am a chiropractor living and working in New York City. My parents grew up in Southern Italy, immigrated to New York in the 1960's and moved back to their Italian hometown in 1996. I have been traveling to Italy for the past 52 years and have always dreamed of having a villa there. I fell in absolute love with this Villa and I know that it will be a place of joy and "dolce vita". I own a couple of properties in Miami Beach and New York City, which I also rent out. I really enjoy the hospitality sector and love helping people enjoy their vacation time.

I was impressed when I was driving through the romantic Pugliese countryside to see the villa for the first time, but when I pulled up to the gate and saw the magnificent villa perched on top of the hill I was utterly wowed. The broker scheduled our viewing just before sunset... a brilliant tactic! I could hardly believe the prospect of this actually being my home. This Masseria (Italian for farm house) was thoughtfully built in 2010 from the ground up by a lovely British couple. But it was made to look like it had been there for centuries. The advantage of a newly built home, of course, is that the amenities are modern and very functional. The builders thought of sustainability and added many environmentally friendly features. They also designed the home with British/American sensibilities such as an oversized kitchen, large bathrooms with walk in showers and an outdoor poolside bathroom & shower as well as a walk in closet. One of my pet peeves with most Italian homes is their tiny kitchens, cramped showers and lack of closets. But exploring the unique town of Matera and the nearby Pugliese towns and incredible beaches was what sealed the deal for me.

Matera is a World UNESCO heritage site as well as the winner of the 2019 European Capital of Culture. The area of what is now Matera is believed to have been settled since the Palaeolithic (10th millennium BC), which means the area has been occupied continuously for at least three millennia . This makes it potentially one of the oldest continually inhabited settlements in the world. And the 2021 James Bond film No Time to Die was filmed in Matera. The adjacent region of Puglia has had a recent boom in tourism and is reputed for having the best beaches in all of Italy. Also, unique to this region is the Trullo, a traditional Puglian dry stone hut with a conical roofs, which you see throughout the region. To the south, less than 30 minutes drive, you have the sandy beaches of the Ionian Sea and to the West you have the stunning rocky beaches of the Adriatic. Also, within an hour's drive you can visit the famous towns of Alberobello, Ostuni & Monopoli. Visit Francis Ford Coppola's Palazzo Margherita hotel in less than 20 minutes in the town of Bernalda. Less than an hour's drive from the Bari international airport also provides easy access to the Villa.