Here is where to stay on the ancient stretch of Italian coastline that people in the know are calling 'the new Amalfi'

In early summer, wind cools the sliver of coastline that connects Fonteblanda and Porto Santo Stefano in south-west Tuscany. In the crescent-shaped bay, the water is whipped up into one million tiny stiff peaks and windsurfers take to their narrow boards. On land, the wind is tamer, reduced to little more than a whisper by the thousands of pine trees that stand sentry on the land’s edge, their sharp needles littering the sandy and rocky beaches below.

Villa Talamo hides behind automatic gates at the end of a dirt track, somewhere towards the north end of the bay. It is a stark, but handsome, burned-butter building with teal shutters and once operated as a Benedictine monastery. It was built, in the 18th century, by someone whose brother built an identical version several hundreds of meter