Hotels in Ostuni

Ostuni: La Città Bianca

Ostuni crowns a 218-metre hill in the Murgia dei Trulli zone of Puglia, roughly 8 km from the Adriatic coast. Its medieval centro storico is painted entirely white — a tradition dating to a 15th-century lime-wash campaign believed to ward off plague — earning the city its enduring name, La Città Bianca. The cathedral, built between 1435 and 1495 in late Gothic style, anchors the skyline with a distinctive rose window carved in local limestone.

Visitors arrive for three overlapping reasons: the hill-town architecture, the beaches of Villanova and Rosa Marina directly below, and the regional food culture of the Salento-Brindisi border zone. Olive groves surrounding Ostuni produce some of Puglia's most prized extra-virgin oil, and the Wednesday market on Viale Pola draws buyers from surrounding masserie. The city sits 36 km north of Brindisi Airport, making it one of the most accessible hill towns in southern Italy for international travellers.

The old town is navigated almost entirely on foot — narrow whitewashed lanes rarely admit vehicles. Hotels cluster in two zones: converted masserie in the surrounding countryside and smaller boutique properties inside the walls near Piazza della Libertà. July and August see the highest occupancy as coastal visitors combine beach days with evening passeggiata up the hill.