This year it’s Italy’s turn to host the G7 conference, which kicks off today (June 13). When Boris Johnson’s government did so in 2021, it was held at the Carbis Bay Hotel, a high-end seaside resort in Cornwall.
In 2022, Germany’s choice was the stately Schloss Emlau in the Wetterstein Mountains near the Austrian Tirol.
Italy has chosen to take the leaders of the free world to Puglia for the latest in peasant-chic glamour.
Built in 2009, Borgo Egnazia is part hotel, part stage set with a village square surrounded by a maze of passageways and arches, all dripping with bougainvillaea, interspersed with citrus trees and prickly pears.
The resort’s flagship restaurant, Ristorante Due Camini, has a Michelin star, but Domingo Schingaro’s food is matched by flagstone floors and lights made from empty wine bottles – the antithesis of bling, and all very “quiet luxury”.
The pizza at La Frasca ranks as one of my top 10 wood-fired dough-based experiences and there are four other resolutely Puglian restaurants to choose from, including seafood at the hotel’s own beach club.