Sant'Angelo, Matera

There’s no place quite like Matera, the southern Italian town that’s famous for the dwellings carved into its limestone caves. When the first boutique hotel opened here, it felt like a gesture that could never be repeated, but Matera has caught on among travelers in a big way, and there’s room in this town for a diversity of hotels. This one, Sant’Angelo Luxury Resort, is quite unlike any other; the owners have converted a whole neighborhood into a hotel, including a selection of traditional cave houses as well as a palazzo and a beautifully restored church.

Rooms vary quite a bit, according to the setting — some bedrooms lie deep inside the caves, while others look out over the town from within the palazzo’s walls. All of them, however, are both luxurious and stylish, combining the ancient and the modern in classic Italian style. This means sleek contemporary fixtures and furnishings and modern comforts against the backdrop of rough-hewn limestone cave walls or lovingly restored palace architecture.

You’ll find the paths and stairways around the old town square infinitely more inspiring than the corridors and lobbies of a traditional hotel. And the hotel’s restaurant, Regiacorte, is no less unusual, housed as it is within the cave, with its arched doorways — and it’s paired, for maximum contrast, with a terrace lounge, for an al fresco aperitivo with a view of the landscape.