For Your Next Italian Getaway, A Taste of La Dolce Vita

A selection of new and restored hotels and luxury villas await in Rome, Tuscany and beyond

- STEPHANIE ROSENBLOOM

A raft of new and renovated properties is opening in Italy just in time for the lazy, sun-drenched days of summer. From Tuscany to Puglia, here are a handful of newcomers and thoughtful restorations, including a boutique hotel in a 16th-century Baroque mansion in Lecce and a collection of luxe villas in the mountains of Chianti.

Pensione America, Forte dei Marmi, Lucca
Dating to the early 1920s, this one-time Tuscan villa, and then pensione (or boarding house), by the Ligurian Sea has been transformed into an adults-only beach escape. Where there were once dozens of rooms, there are now just 18 rooms and suites. All have terraces or verandas; bamboo furniture that lends a breezy, seaside feel; and products from Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella, the venerable Italian fragrance and personal care brand. If you really want to spread out, consider booking the two-story casita, La Villetta, which has a garden and a plunge pool.

Created by Collezione Em (whose hotels include the Grand Hotel Minerva in Florence and the Violino d'Oro in Venice), Pensione America is part of the Leading Hotels of the World collection of luxury properties. You can delight amid the gardens, on a tennis court, and in the pool decorated with Sicilian tiles. Go for a stroll or ride on one of the free bikes to the nearby beaches for which the area is known. At lunchtime, you'll find a menu inspired by the surrounding waters, with seafood dishes such as ravioli with shellfish and spaghetti with arselle (little clams).

La Roqqa, Porto Ercole, Grosseto