Villa Scinata Historic House

Augusto has made this a warm, welcoming place, and Stefano and Erica do their best to make guests comfortable. When we arrived, Hermes, the friendly dog who lives at the villa, greeted us. My husband and I came for our anniversary and had a wonderful stay. The Sunday Times recommendation is well deserved. The rooms are in the main house and in a building off to the left, with plenty of parking. Breakfast comes each morning: bread, fruit, and cereal are provided, and you can order extras for the next day on the board in the breakfast area. Options include pancakes, which I highly recommend, eggs, coffee, and traditional Puglia breakfast items. There's a small pool with loungers nearby, a nice spot for lazy afternoons in the sun. For dinner, the nearby village is a five to eight minute walk, including if you want aperitifs and wine. You'll need a car to explore farther afield. Everyone is friendly and happy to help, and Stefano greeted us every morning with great suggestions for things to see and do.

We've been coming to Salento for years to holiday and work remotely, but hadn't found this mix of beauty, peace, and comfort before. Augusto and his team made the stay memorable with their care over the little things, good advice, company, and enthusiasm. We hope to be back soon. The breakfast setup was a favorite: choose sweet and savory items the day before, then find your basket ready in the morning. We loved eating privately by our room with classical music playing. The Villa has the facilities we needed, including strong WiFi and places to relax. St Caterina Beach is about five minutes away, and Porto Selvaggio is another twenty minutes on foot. The walk through the nature reserve is quiet and has plenty of viewpoints. There's also a beachside bike lane stretching over 10 km, handy for burning off those pasticciotto calories. Come to Salento in the low season for a better experience, and ask about the wine and food experience. The area around Nardò is just MAGIC!

Villa Scinata was a lovely place to stay. Our newly renovated room retained the character of the beautiful old architecture, and the villa's location was great for visiting beaches and cities. The owner and staff made the holiday extra special, especially Stefano. For an authentic Italian villa, this is a great spot.

The bed was OK, the AC worked well, and we could walk to the city and several restaurants. The staff were friendly, though communicating was a little difficult since I don't speak Italian. Still, I was truly disappointed after booking based on all the four and five star reviews. The exterior is amazing, but the rooms felt more like a two-star hotel: not very clean, with thick limescale buildup in the bathroom. The sign said to hang towels we wanted to keep and leave those for changing on the floor. I did that, but the towels were left as they were. They also didn't replace the empty toilet paper or empty the trash cans. Breakfast was poor, with dry bread and cheap products. We were surprised at checkout to learn it wasn't included in the price. After we left, we checked again and found we'd been charged 15€ instead of the 5€ listed in our booking. I'd suggest eating breakfast elsewhere if you stay. For a place rated four stars and called “luxury suites,” I expected more, especially at about 200€ a night. I rarely leave bad reviews, and I'm sorry I can't recommend it.