I thought I'd seen enough great hotel breakfasts - then I came to Italy

On the morning of my arrival at Casa Maria Luigia, the dreamlike guesthouse owned by acclaimed hospitality couple Massimo Bottura and Lara Gilmore just outside Modena, I stumbled across a chef roasting peach halves, tomatoes and zucchini in a huge outdoor wood-burning oven. The burnt sugar fragrance of the charred peaches, the vegetal sweetness of the tomatoes smelled like the purest expression of Italian summer.

I asked the chef if he was cooking them in advance for some major lunch or dinner later in the day. "Oh no," he replied. "This is for now. For breakfast."

I didn't fully understand what he meant until the following morning when I was led to the property's elaborate breakfast spread. Casa Maria Luigia's breakfast is like no hotel breakfast you've ever tried. It's all set up on broad tables, piled with Parmigiano Reggiano, mortadella and handmade cotechino sausage. Platters of fresh eggplants and peaches, plucked straight from the garden and roasted simply over flame. Tiny erbazzone tarts filled with spinach, chard and cheese, and carved with neat diamond patterns.