LECCE, Apulia — We spoke to Miriam De Rienzo-Gazzola at Palazzo Maresgallo, which she rescued with her husband Lionello from sixty years of abandonment and transformed into one of Lecce’s most striking boutique hotels and art galleries. Twelve suites furnished with works from their private art collection, a noble floor given over to rotating exhibitions of contemporary artists, a grand salon frescoed by Roberto Ruspoli with star-shaped vaults drawn from the pizzica, and a rooftop terrace overlooking Lecce’s Roman theatre and the Duomo. Lionel, whose family legacy in conservative restoration stretches back to his grandfather’s work on the Louvre, and whose career has taken him through projects with the Arnault family and the world’s most prestigious luxury houses, had an instinct for extraordinary spaces before anyone else did. That instinct even drew Oscar-winning actress Helen Mirren as patron of the grand opening, and Dior’s Croisière show to Lecce in its wake.