Tranquillity and comfort in a guesthouse in the Marche countryside - airy rooms for couples with huge windows onto good views

A hilltop setting for this ancient fortress with an illustrious past. You stay in apartments or farmhouses inside or outside the walls

Once a shooting lodge, this stand-alone big building was part of a medieval estate and you can still see the grassy mount and dungeon tower

A big, rambling inn – welcoming and unpretentious with deep sofas, eclectic artwork, tasty food and exceedingly comfortable bedrooms

Soak up Provençal peace in a charming estate in the Alpilles, with stylish ground-floor B&B rooms, olives, vines and a friendly family dog

Heart-warming B&B with hosts who are endlessly thoughtful. The food is exotic, organic, delicious and families are made very welcome

Swim with frogs in the freshwater pool, breakfast in the sunshine, play boules by moonlight. Châteaux don't get much more rural

A charming inn on the village green with beautiful interiors - you’ll find low ceilings, pretty rooms and a fire that burns on cold days.

An elegant, super central bolthole for two (or three): stroll everywhere, hop on a vaporetto, sit in piazzas drinking cappuccino, live like a local

Beautiful Noto is 4 miles from the Ionian Sea, and this creative renovation, with lush garden, stands above the throng. Heaven in Sicily

Authenticity and originality combine at this family chateau with its panelled rooms, theatrical flourishes and charming candlelit dinners

Gather the clans and just come. It's lovely here among acres of wildlife-filled grounds – a Sawday's Community Champion

Ease through a beautiful wrought iron gate to a courtyard and an elegant 1700s creamy stone holiday house, part of the château estate

A grand, 16th-century Breton château complete with dovecote, turret and chapel surrounded by 50 acres of parkland, woods and small lake

An achingly elegant boutique hotel set in Mallorca's olives and orchards: candlelit organic dinners, infinity pool, a smart little bar...

A smartly-refurbished coaching inn sitting near the river Frome run with an emphasis on fair trade, sustainability and excellent local food

Hideaway in the hills complete with private pool and outdoor kitchen. Spend days hiking or on a sun lounger - perfect for families

Vineyards, fruit trees and immaculate gardens, amazing food and wine, a sense of seclusion and sweeping views of the Tuscan hills