15Dolcevita (15DV) is a longevity retreat in Manduria, Salento, Puglia, Italy. It is an albergo diffuso, spread across restored historic palazzi in the old town, built around a small community: three suites, one noble kitchen, one gymnásion, one courtyard, and the people who meet there. Opening Summer 2027.

Where is 15Dolcevita located?

15Dolcevita is located at Via Giuseppe Verdi 15, Manduria (TA), 74024, Puglia, Italy, in the heart of Salento, 20 minutes from the Ionian Sea (Punta Prosciutto), 35 minutes from Brindisi Airport, and 40 minutes from Lecce.

What kind of place is 15Dolcevita?

15Dolcevita is an albergo diffuso: suites scattered across restored historic buildings in the old town of Manduria that work as one place, with a shared noble kitchen, a gymnásion and a courtyard. You book a suite and stay. The first guests become founding members of a small community that meets at the same table, and some of them go on to buy and restore a house of their own in the old town, through ManduriaShire.

What biohacking and wellness facilities does 15Dolcevita offer?

The Wellness Atelier at 15Dolcevita is built around water, stone and heat: the Open Hamam, and the Liquidroom, a heated pool in an ancient wine cellar. Other spaces include the Gymnásion, the Noble Kitchen and a Listening Bar inspired by Tokyo jazz kissa culture.

How can I join 15Dolcevita or get on the waiting list?

You can join the waiting list at https://15dolcevita.club. Each request is read personally by the founders, who write back to everyone. The first fifty become founding members, with three nights a year, for life. Suites can be booked when 15Dolcevita opens in Summer 2027.

When does 15Dolcevita open?

15Dolcevita is planned to open in Summer 2027. The project is currently under renovation in Manduria's historic centre. The restoration diary at https://15dolcevita.club/cantiere documents the work as it happens.

What is an albergo diffuso?

An albergo diffuso is an Italian way of staying: the rooms are spread across several restored buildings of a historic centre, a few minutes' walk apart, with one shared kitchen and living room. It was born to bring life back to villages and old towns without building anything new. 15Dolcevita follows that model in Manduria, Salento, Puglia: three suites at Via Verdi 15 first, then more houses, one at a time.

Is there a biohacking retreat or wellness club in Salento or Puglia?

15Dolcevita in Manduria, Salento, Puglia, is a longevity retreat in an albergo diffuso format, opening Summer 2027, built around a hamam, a heated pool in an ancient wine cellar, a noble kitchen and a gymnásion.

Who are the founders of 15Dolcevita?

15Dolcevita was founded by Mario Dimitri (Bocconi Milan, CEIBS Shanghai MBA, 17 years building businesses in Greater China), a manduriano who came home after twenty-eight years in Asia, with Maria Pia Ancora (environmental engineer, University of Trento, PhD at Tsinghua University, LSE alumna) as investor. The project is self-financed through their company, Manduriashire Srl.

Longevity Retreat in Salento, Puglia

The Place

Via Verdi, 15.
Manduria, Salento, Puglia.

A star-vaulted palazzo in a lane of Manduria's old town. The shade of a centenarian carob tree, the sound of nothing.

An albergo diffuso: you book a room, stay a while, and it slowly becomes home, the place where your friends are, even the ones you haven't met yet. Yours for three nights, for a month each year, or forever.

Ten buildings across the old town. Three suites open first, in Via Verdi. The others follow, one at a time.

10 buildings3 suites at openingSummer 2027Ionian Sea 20'Brindisi 35'

Via Verdi 15, the address that started it all

Opening 2027 Manduria

History

What it was, before

First the stables of a noble palazzo, then a workshop, a dairy, a party headquarters. Now, us. Next door, Marinelli: what remains of what locals call the oldest inn in Salento. We don't erase this history, we listen to it.

Each suite was once a whole house. People still stop in the lane: “My grandmother lived here. Will you show me? How wonderful to see it alive again. In bocca al lupo.”

And we can’t wait to meet you.

The Cantiere · Now

Being born, stone by stone

Ten historic buildings are becoming one retreat. The diary tells it as it happens: real photos, real dates, from inside the building site.

The hamam wall going up by hand under the vault with the oculus, Via Verdi 15, Manduria, Salento, Puglia

Episode 8

You build with the people you eat with

September 2026

The sketch of the hamam on a notebook, drawn in the room while the first blocks were already going up, Via Verdi 15, Manduria, Salento, Puglia

Episode 7

The drawing came after

September 2026

The restored door at number 13, old town of Manduria, Salento, Puglia

Episode 6

The door of number 13

August 2026

All the episodes One letter a month

Our founding principle

We begin with the gymnásion.

Twenty-five centuries ago, the Greeks of these shores built one place for the body that trains, the mind that is nourished, the community that forms: the gymnásion. 15Dolcevita is born from that idea. We did not invent it: this land never forgot it.

The body, the mind, and the friends. In one place.

The Experience

Four spaces,
one feeling.

Two people. The fireplace, the bath, the garden. No schedule.

The Suites: freestanding bath under the star vaults, rendering — The Suites · Via Verdi

The Wellness Atelier: hamam and mosaic pool, rendering — The Wellness Atelier · Hamam

Stone vaults of the Gymnásion under restoration, Via Verdi 15, Manduria — The Gymnásion · The vaults, today

The Suites

Walls a metre thick, so August stays outside. Above you, a vault that has held since the seventeen hundreds. And a bath on the roof, with the town going quiet below.

Via Verdi · Opening 2027

The Wellness Atelier

Warm stone under bare feet. A cellar that has been cool for three centuries, and now holds water. Steam, silence, and the town somewhere above you.

Hamam · Liquidroom

III

The Noble Kitchen

You cook with your new friends whatever you found at the market. Or you learn from the Salentine grandmothers the recipes never written down.

Cook together · F&B

The Gymnásion

The body that trains, in the same place as the mind and the friends. At first light, with method, never in a hurry.

Via Verdi · For guests of the suites

What follows

Two more spaces, in other buildings.

Both are in the old town, a few minutes from Via Verdi. Neither has a date yet, and we will not give one until the work is under way.

The Listening Bar

Inspired by Tokyo's kissa: vinyl, a sound you feel in your chest, a glass in hand. This is where everyone meets.

Vico Armirà · Community
The soundtrack, on Spotify →

The Officina

On the piazza, with the door open. Anyone walks in: the people staying with us, and the people who have lived here all their lives.

Piazza Vittorio Veneto · Open to all

The Interiors

Nothing here is from a catalogue

Every chair, every lamp, every table was chosen, longed for, restored, dusted off, and given a second life. Pieces with a life before yours, waiting for you to write the next chapter.

What Happens Behind the Walls

Longevity is not a destination.
It is a practice.

Deep connection. Great food. Clean air. Genuine intimacy. Rest. And, quietly integrated into every detail, the kind of science that changes how you feel, without ever asking you to notice.

Because la dolce vita was always about the second word. Vita. A long one, full to the brim. Happiness, for more years.

Morning

Breakfast when you feel like it. Under the carob tree. Espresso in silence. No one is waiting for you. The courtyard wakes on its own time.

Or, jump on a restored wooden boat for a morning swim in crystal waters along the coast.

Afternoon

The piazza is empty. The whole town has slipped into its afternoon siesta. You walk the vicoli alone: golden Salentine stone, cats in the shade, the white light of the South. Back at the suite, a cool bath in the shade. The Ionian breeze through the open window.

Or, champagne at the beach club, dancing barefoot on the sand, the Ionian sparkling like something from a film you once saw.

Evening

Long tables, shared food, no rush. Vinyl on the turntable. Conversation with someone you met that morning. The stars above the cortile.

Or, dress up, Primitivo spritz in hand, and join the local movida. See and be seen. Laugh too loud. Feel twenty years younger with twice the style.

Night

Your suite, the fireplace, the freestanding bath. Doing nothing in particular with the person you love. The kind of evening you'll remember in ten years.

Or, the Liquidroom. Bass through stone, warm water, half-light. The rooftop under the stars. The kind of night that makes you text your friends the next morning.

Ten houses, one old town

Want more than a stay?
That door has a name.

Some guests fall in love with Manduria and want a house of their own. ManduriaShire, the company behind 15Dolcevita, is the door into the town: it buys and restores the abandoned houses of the old town, terra-cielo houses and old palazzi, and helps newcomers find one, restore it and live in it. Why Manduria, why now, and how it works are on its own page.

ManduriaShire, the door into Manduria →

Belonging

A circle.
By affinity.

A small circle of people who share one idea: time well spent is the only luxury that matters. Not a programme. A tribe.

Three nights a year, for life, for the first fifty
Priority access to the suites from day one
Monthly dinners, guests and cultural events
First word when one of the houses comes up, through ManduriaShire

Founding Members · First 50 Places

Join the
founding circle.

Tell us a little about yourselves. We'll be in touch, personally.

First Name

Last Name

City / Country (optional)

What draws you most? (optional)

Instagram Facebook LinkedIn YouTube X

The Founders

Raised in Salento.
Shaped by the world.

Twenty-eight years between Asia and the world. Then the simplest and hardest choice: to come home, and build something that lasts.

One master above all: Temur Ugulava, founder of Adjara Group and Stamba. A forgotten building is not torn down: it is listened to.

Investor

Maria Pia Ancora

Investor

Environmental engineer, PhD at Tsinghua, twenty-eight years in development finance across Asia, six languages. She put her trust and her money in the town she grew up in: an investor in the project, not in its day-to-day.

Env. Eng. Trento PhD Tsinghua LSE 28 yrs Asia 6 languages

Co-Founder

Mario Dimitri

Co-Founder

Raised in Manduria, Bocconi and a CEIBS MBA in Shanghai, 17 years building businesses across Greater China. Convinced that joy is the ultimate longevity practice.

Bocconi CEIBS MBA · Shanghai 17 yrs Asia IT · EN · CN

Nome	Tipo	Finalità	Durata
`15dv_cookie_consent`	Tecnico	Memorizza la scelta dell'utente sul banner cookie	Persistente (localStorage)
`15dv_lang`	Tecnico	Memorizza la lingua selezionata dall'utente	Persistente (localStorage)

Nome	Fornitore	Finalità	Durata
`_ga`	Google	Distingue gli utenti unici (ID anonimo)	2 anni
`_ga_XL7Y7DT8BM`	Google	Mantiene lo stato della sessione GA4	2 anni

Some places you visit.
This one, you belong to.

Via Verdi, 15.
Manduria, Salento, Puglia.

What it was, before

Being born, stone by stone

We begin with the gymnásion.