Calcebianca B&B

The rooms and pool facilities are excellent. Great bean bags beside the pool to sit and relax in a nice secluded environment as there is only 3 villas. Room was finished nicely with modern fitout, albeit quite small. Breakfast is delivered each moning at time of choosing, making your selection the day before.|Our only fault was that it lacks a personal touch, host was polite and nice but would have been better had we been given advice on the area and things to do etc. Breakfast is fair but we think for the price we would have expected more variety and quality

I just loved this venue calm and perfect. The bed are very comfortable and the pool is great. There are only 3 bedrooms so you really get a feeling of intimacy in the property. It smells very good thanks to all the plants around it. We had a private garden and terrace for our room. The only thing is that you can't get salty items for your breakfast unless you pay for it. The owners are very welcoming :) However please note that the WIFI didn't work at all in this hotel which is a shame for the price per room...

We had high expectations of this B&B but left a little disappointed. The architecture is beautiful, the pool is amazing but it lacks those finishing touches. It also felt like we were intruding on someone's house and to be completely honest, felt more like a self-service apartment than a B&B (and our opinion was shared by others staying there too). ||||It's 800m from the town but we would definitely recommend having a car (otherwise it's a walk along a busy A road and unlit back road) at night. You also need a car to get to the beaches and any other sites. The instructions from the owners to get to the B&B were quite vague and even when you did notice the small white sign to turn off, we spent 10 minutes trying to find the right driveway - there's absolutely no signage. The owners don't speak any English which meant that we couldn't get any local tips on where to eat, where to go, sites to see - the little things that make staying at a B&B better than a generic hotel.||||Breakfast is basic but it's delivered to your room every morning rather than sitting at a communal space. Extras are charged for too and this quickly adds up. You can also request room service for additional items (water, wine etc) and we did this but then were forgotten about - they didn't even arrive. ||||The rooms aren't cleaned daily, towels and bedding are only changed once a week but you can request this more frequently for a charge of between 10- 20 Euros each time - a bit cheeky if you ask me for a boutique B&B. The rooms are quite small/cosy and minimalistic but overall fine as you don't spend much time in the room anyway. ||||The pool is absolutely beautiful and perfect for a hot summers day but it is more like a family pool than you have access to rather than a pool for the guests. At times we felt uncomfortable when the family friends were all around or the family themselves, dive-bombing into the pool when the guests were trying to relax. We retreated to our room on a few occasions.||||It was (mostly) relaxing and enjoyable but I do think it should be positioned more as a self-catering apartment than B&B per se. We didn't get the sense that the owners wanted to help us get the most out of our holiday either. ||||Shame.||||It's got the potential to be amazing but just needs those finishing touches to get there.

The good bits||Amazing views, beautifully designed, really comfortable beds. A lovely private terrace, quiet and extras like drinks were a very fair price. Nice and close to Ostuni - though we didn't walk due to the crazy driving over there.||||Not so good||The owner Rosa, whilst a lovely lady, and brought us fresh tomatoes from her garden, speaks very little english and this is a problem. Also, although we found the road very easily, there are several properties along there and there were no signs at the property to say you had reached the right place or any indication of where to go. There is usually no one there so it feels very isolated especially when things go wrong which they did. ||||We had no Wifi the whole time were were there, the TV didn't work for 2 days, the water went off one afternoon after a storm and most serious of all we got electric shocks from the shower. The room doorway also flooded when it rained.||||They also only clean the room every 7 days which, considering the price, is really not acceptable. You should expect the bin emptied and fresh towels every couple of days, that no much to ask.||||It really does need someone there at least from 8am to 8pm that can speak english that can help. We like to be independent but not that independent! It really could be lovely with just a bit more effort||||PS anyone going there if you like cats can you feed the hotel cats as they are starving.

Beautiful place, interesting design, the owners were very kind without being intrusive. ||Truly gorgeous location. Ostuni is 15 minutes walk away and full of lovely shops and restaurants. Food and wine in the area is first class.||Nearby coastline is stunning and plenty of interesting places to visit within an hour's drive; a fantastic base.||We liked choosing what to have for breakfast each morning and especially enjoyed the fresh fruit bowl delivered each day.||Very quiet and private, was easy to find and we loved the pool.||We would return and have already recommended to friends.

The place is architecturally interesting and privacy is assured. But we felt that other than a pretty poor breakfast delivered each morning we were left to get on with it. Stayed for 5 nights in Oct 2013 and during the stay our bed wasn't made, our towels weren't refreshed, our cups (coffee etc) weren't washed, our room flooded (we had to clear it up) & I had to ask for loo roll twice (I mean! how embarrassing). ||We had terrific storms whilst there and the room filled with water, a large pond right along the room sized window and under the bed. I had to clear up the water with our towels - ugh. I've looked at other reviews that mention that Cosimo & Rosa couldn't do enough for them, that's really nice but I felt we were a nuisance. When I tried to ask for anything (just loo rolls, we were fine honest, just like to have plenty) I had to walk around the pretty impenetrable building, pressing buzzers that buzzed nobody only to be answered (sometimes) by a small child, I couldn't speak Italian, the small child couldn't speak English, it was......different. Don't be too put off by this review as we never met Cosimo and I'm sure that he's great, we had poor weather, but that's nobody's fault. It's just not a B&B that tarts the room up for you when you are out. Ostuni is up the road. It is a 15 minute walk up the hill to the town (no pavements, fast drivers and plenty of roadside rubbish, including a dead cat during our stay (nice). Ostuni Storico area is beautiful all white marble (slippy when wet) streets and white cave like buildings, small Catherdral and lots of interesting architecture. The old town is amazing & the food and hospitality we experienced was on the whole excellent. We will go back again one day I'm sure, definitely not in October and maybe somewhere a little more traditional and hospitable.

My expectations of Calcebianca were very high and to be fair our recent 7 night stay reached most of these. The architecture is very much a matter of taste, Cosimo, the owner / architect, has pursued his particular vision very consistently throughout this property and it is one that borrows much from the architecture of commercial buildings. The entry systems controlling the individual gardens and doors to each of the three rooms are perhaps unnecessarily sophisticated for this use and give the building a rather 'Big Brother' feel but in other respects this premium approach to specification was worthwhile - the quiet and responsive aircon units and well equipped outdoor shower / wc for example. ||The property has been described in some marketing material as 'romantic', I think this is misleading given the hard architectural approach, which gives the rooms a rather too clinical and austere appearance for my taste. I have no problem with modernism but houses should prioritise human habitation and IMO it would have been more appealing if there had been a wider use of organic materials such as wood.||On the plus side, the rooms and their individual walled gardens are much more private than you would normally ever get in a hotel or B & B. We were in the Red room nearest the main house and pool. While our garden lacked the Orange room's clear view of the town, it was instead entirely enclosed and private, plus it was a real sun trap for most of the day with the high walls providing shade around the perimeter.||Breakfast was delivered to our garden each day on a tray in Cosimo's favoured silver steel, having pre-selected the delivery time and what we wished to eat from a menu the day before, and the breakfast itself was generous in size, well presented and excellent quality. We did order some wine and beers which we thought were good value as extras.||Cosimo was around to check us in and although we saw him and Rosa a few times during the week it was apparent that the language barrier was sufficient to prevent anything other than simple greetings. I understand that some other guests would have appreciated more information regarding local restaurants, events, etc, but our take on the approach of Calcebianca is that the relationship between host and guest is courteous and formal rather than the host acting as a local guide. If you're reading this then you're perfectly capable and likely to use Tripadvisor to sift through the local eateries and nearby towns.||As others mentioned, we also had some unnecessary trouble finding the house despite the road sign, its the driveway that catches people out! When entering from the road drive straight on through the gateway with the metal gate and three coloured knobs (one of Calcebianca's design signatures), then follow this drive up the hill round a right hand bend before making a left turn immediately after the part completed house on the left. This secondary driveway forks into two - stone wheeltracks to the right leading up to the main house of Calcebianca and an unmade more level drive to the side of the part completed house which leads to the parking area next to the Orange room. Once parked, walk up the steps and around the block of 3 rooms to the big terrace and long thin pool that sits between them and the main house.||I am a little sceptical of the 15 minute walk to Ostuni described in other reviews and would definitely recommend having a hire car if you stay at Calcebianca, especially in summer temperatures, (32C daytime / 25C nightime during our stay). We always managed to find parking close to the Storico and the main car park next to the junction of Via Salvatore Tommasi and Via F. Vitale is free from 14.00 to 19.00 each day and only 0.52 euro per hour outside these times. At busy times the Italians just start parking for free on the road below the car park and on the road outside the Hotel Relais Sant Eligio. We had an excellent lunch at Il Fienele, (the closest restaurant to Calcebianca), and walking back from that in the summer afternoon heat would probably have ruined the experience.||We did meet some of the family and their friends and they were all very courteous, although language again imposed limitations on our exchange. The large central terrace and unusual long thin pool were only used by other guests during our 7 night stay, with the exception of a a very gentile late night reception held by Cosimo and Rosa on the big terrace to view the celebratory firework display above Ostuni in honour of Sant'Oronzo.||To sum up, what Cosimo and Rosa have at Calcebianca is exceptional and different, not at all run of the mill, their website is full of appealing and accurate images - http://www.calcebianca.it/en/index.html - you should book understanding that you are getting unusual accommodation in a lovely area with efficient but 'hands off' service. If you like the idea of something different and appreciate both privacy and independence then this could be the place for you.

Just 1km away from Ostuni, great location and beautiful private, secluded apartments. Breakfast is delivered to you in the morning. Lovely clean infinity pool overlooking the white city in the distance. Recommended.