06-09-2016
Masseria San Pietro, the restaurant inside the Acaya Golf & Spa Resort, just a few kilometres east of Lecce. The 4 star resort, part of the Jsh hotel collection and run by Double Tree Resort by Hilton, is an excellent solution for a short break in September, in the heart of a calmer part of Salento
It’s not that in Salento summer is yet to start, but from Lecce southwards, summer lasts longer than elsewhere. And perhaps it’s best to go now instead of August as from now until the end of October, everything is calm: if you want to pop by in the lively Baroque town, you can park even off Piazza Sant’Oronzo; the queue to get hold of a tiny plot of sand on the beautiful beaches becomes more reasonable; prices are more sensible and the same goes for the traffic on the roads connecting the heel of Italy from the Adriatic to the Ionian Sea, from north to south. Peace becomes even quieter at Acaya, a Golf & Spa Resort a few kilometres east of Lecce, right behind the natural protected area of Le Cesine, overlooking the Adriatic Sea. The resort doesn’t directly overlook the sea and this lowers the volume further. Most of all, spaces are so stretched that every sound dies even before it reaches you: the 18-hole golf course spreads over 133 hectares with an impressive network of Mediterranean shrub (for players, it’s a par 71, requiring the use of all 14 clubs).
97 rooms and suites, each with a terrace or a patio outside
The main swimming pool at Acaya, surrounded by stonewalls and centennial olive trees
The restaurant offer is managed by Andrea Ribaldone, here represented by his faithful collaborators Nicola Angelini (in the kitchen) and Matteo Bertolino (in the dining room)
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born in Milan, 1973, freelance journalist, coordinator of Identità Golose World restaurant guidebook since 2007, he is a contributor for several magazines and teaches History of gastronomy and Culinary global trends into universities and institutes. twitter @gabrielezanatt instagram @gabrielezanatt