Podere della Collina

Les alentours de Podere de la Collina sont vraiment magnifiques. La vue sur la campagne est magique, le logement est très bien situé pour les visites des villes phares de la Toscane et entourée de petits villages charmants. L'hôtesse est très sympathique et accueillante. Nous recommandons son huile d'olive (bio) ! Merci Antonella.

Pas très bien insonorisé avec l'appartement d'à côté, mais nos voisins étaient discrets.

Nice place, nice view, but the hotel has no restaurant, no food at all!

First of all, this hotel is VERY hard to find. It does not have a proper address to put into a navi, and the address you can put in leaves you 10 km away. The owner has limited English so she was not much help with directions. Once you find it, however, the scenery is beautiful. As far as the room goes, it was very quaint but the furnishings are minimal and old. The water temperature did not seem to be controllable, you got whatever was in the tank whether it be scalding hot or cold. Also, the radiators were not on during the day or early evening, so we were quite clod in our room at times. The owner also lives on the property and the "lobby" with the wifi seemed to be their living room which was awkward. When I went in there to pay, I was asked to come back later because the family was doing something around the table. There is not dining there and you must come prepared with drinking water, shampoo and some food. I did not know this in advance so it was difficult to get those things the evening we arrived because everything nearby was closed. The apartments down the road did have a great restaurant. Finally, because of it's location, you have to drive quite a ways to get to a main road and it took us an hour to get to Florence and 40ish minutes to Pisa from there.

Though the hotel is only supposed to be a couple minutes off the interstate, it took us over two hours to find. We had a local guy help us, and it took him an hour to help us find it. He even talked to the hotel owner on the phone multiple times. There was only one small sign that was difficult to find and see. When we finally arrived to the hotel, the owner was not apologetic. She showed us to the room and did not offer to help at all. There was no food in the evening available and no breakfast in the morning available. The hotel is also at the top of a hill and the road to get up the hill is in poor condition. Additionally, the heater would not work. I would not recommend anyone stay at this hotel. It sounded romantic and mysterious, but don't be mistaken. Spend an extra $10 and stay at a place that is easier to find, has better customer service, and has some amenities. On a positive note, the room was not so bad for the price.

It was difficult to find without the exact GPS coordinates. It actually is in Toiano, not Palaia. You may consider using a vehicle with 4WD because it is on a hill with a dirt driveway. They also have cats and a dog roaming around, so if you have allergies to cats, you may want to bring allergy meds. They are outside, not in the buildings, though. The kids had a great time in the pool. It is quiet around the area. The walls between the apartments is thin, so you can hear the neighbors move around, if you have any. Overall, we had a great time. The area around is gorgeous. We had great weather and drove to see other sights, such as Siena, San Gimignano, Pisa, and Volterra. Love our stay. The staff is courteous. It was better than staying in a standard hotel, if you prefer unique quarters, which our family does. Plus, it fit our family of five without getting two rooms. It is very hard to find places to accommodate more than 4.

If you are looking for isolation and seclusion in Tuscany, this place might be right for you. However, if you are looking for a nice staging area from which to explore the sites in Tuscany, you might want to keep looking. This place had some charm, but overall, it didn't work very well for us. We only stayed there one night because after we spent all day driving around the area, we didn't want to drive the hour and a half back to the hotel. In addition, when we tried to cancel the second night, they would not release us from the reservation and we had to pay for both nights.