Albergo Diffuso Santo Stefano di Sessanio

The town of Santo Stefano di Sessanio (population 116), in the mountainous central Italian region of Abruzzi, may seem an unlikely place to find a boutique hotel. But as part of a $6.5 million overhaul, Italian-Swedish philosopher and preservationist Daniele Elow Kihlgren recently turned a handful of 15th-century buildings into a rustic-chic 44-room inn, complete with a weaver’s atelier and an herbalist. In a nod to the area’s traditions, the emphasis throughout the Albergo is on local craftsmanship, from the olive-oil soaps in the bathrooms to the hand-woven bedcovers colored with native plant dyes. In creating the inn’s restaurant, “town elders” and an anthropologist were consulted for historical—and gastronomical—accuracy.