My wife and I visited La Sommita for a week's vacation in August of this year. Overall the experience has to be viewed as excellent albeit with a couple of weaknesses.

The hotel is new - when we arrived it felt as if they still had some small commissioning issues. That said it was wonderful. The situation, at the heart of a medieval walled city, is fantastic. This creates a challenge as the hotel staff has to take you to and from the car park in a three-wheeled buggy. I thought it would be tiresome but it wasn’t.

The food is excellent – the dining room understated and tasteful and the quality of the cuisine really is first class. This was true at breakfast and whenever we ordered snacks. The wine list is good but extremely focused on the local region – this means that a barrage of heavy red wines confronts you. It’s a minor point but it can wear thin. The staff were keen, attentive and highly trained; they were consistently supportive and nice throughout the visit.

Our room was amazing – built from two cellars with its own castle walled terrace one felt special. The decoration is muted yet tasteful. There is no music player in the room – an omission at this price point, but the rest was in tune with the surroundings.

We had one niggle – the hotel has an arrangement with a local beach club that cost something like €50 a day. This is a rip-off so, either go to the club and pay directly (much, much less) or go to another beach club.

Finally, this isn’t Tuscany. Otsuni itself is pretty but not remarkably so. The local towns can be grim – southern Italy is very different. Food in the region is less consistent that in other parts of the country, this was true in the town as well as the local area. So, I would recommend La Sommita hugely

We stayed at the Sommita for a weekend in early September - what an amazing place! We loved everything about the hotel, including the lovely spa (apparently inside an old "frantoio"). Worth a visit! A word of warning to anyone who decides to hire a car and drive to the hotel themselves though - it is not very easy to find!! The hotel parking is quite a hike to the hotel itself, as the hotel is in the historical centre and cars have no access to it. We also had an absolutely gorgeous dinner at Osteria Sparacimi while we were in Ostuni and would highly recommend going there.

Totally disagree with these reviews.
La Sommita is a wonderful hotel with incredibly warm and helpful staff. It is set on the top of Ostuni - a very old and charming town - beatuiful with lots of great restaurants. Yes the hotel is not a quaint local farmhouse - its is a luxury hotel and spa - but the vaulted ceilings and carved window details show the building's heritage. It has been lovingly restored. It is small - only ten rooms - so is intimate and private. It is perfect for a chilled few days away. I've been there four times now. we get a car and get out and about to the beach. Breakfasts are great but we eat out most of the time as the restaurants there are so fabulous. There is also a spa which is great for relaxing treatments. For those who report 'style over substance' I fear they don't 'get' what La Sommita is all about. If you want authentic Puglia masseria/farmhouse hotel, there are hundreds to choose from. if you want a chic, intimate, relaxed and stylish long weekend away, la sommita is perfect. we split a holiday once between the two so you experience both. very different experiences but you cant compare - they're both fab but different. its so close to brindisi too which makes it more convenient for those near stansted than most getaways in the UK. Staff are so obliging and respond warmly if you treat them as you wish to be treated. if you go in with your nose stuck in the air and clap your hands wanting five star euro-hotel service, i can imagine you may be met with some contempt. i was tempted to write a less glowing review in the hope that it will stay the tucked-away little unknown hotel that it is at the moment, but I felt compelled to say something after reading these not too hot reviews. And if you're in Ostuni, you MUST eat at La Sparacima - it's just the best.

This is a beautiful hotel in a spectacular location, and yet it was still a grossly disappointing stay. It had been billed by our travel agent as a place you just HAD to stay, best he'd ever been to etc. Our experience was very different; the service was plain rude and unhelpful and tainted the whole stay. We felt like we were inconvencing the staff just by being there, and on one day when there was a wedding taking place in the hotel we were hustled out of breakfast (which is a strange affair anyway - it's laid up on tables waiting for guests - no choice and nothing stopping the flies etc) early so they could set up. We were unable to use the terraces or bar / restaurant that day and of course there was no advance warning of this. Even when the wedding was over, the restaurant didn't open so we can't comment on it. There are however a lot of very nice local (cheap) restaurants around the town, which is lovely.
Be warned - don't even try driving up to the hotel! we managed to get a very small car very stuck!
The rooms are generic "stylish hotel" - lots of limestone and pale linen, and all very branded (it's owned by an interiors shop or similar and there are logos and brochures for it everywhere). Our suite was extremely dark - bear in mind these were monks' cells and so the conversion has had to be done with some imagination at the expense of things like views / windows.