Il Ciavattone Bed and Bike

Spacious space in a restored farmhouse with covered BBQ area for enjoying the views of the garden and mountains. The room is a bit like a cave so has character, lovely and cool in the summer. A bit outdated though with the furnishings. Plenty of parking space, the B&B is a bit in the middle of nowhere and our GPS had trouble finding it. But great if you love space and nature! Hosts could not speak any English but we managed to communicate just fine. Lovely dinner in nearby Sulmona, and interesting town to wander around (city of artists).

Breakfast was minimal.....prepackaged dry toast with packets of jam is not what I normally eat! Made our own coffee in an old fashioned coffee pot.

The breakfast was amazing and the hosts were just beautiful.

There is nothing that we didn’t like it was very relaxing.

My family chose Il Ciavattone because we were a larger party, and we were able to fit all of us among the three apartments. It was close to Introdacqua, where we planned to spend time. The property’s website is very misleading. We were not shown any winery, and the bikes were hidden in a room that we didn’t find until the day we left. The owners live in the house, and they are always present, as in spying on you, creepy-present. In fact, the day that we tried to find the bikes, the wife, Anna, crept in behind us and startled us. They advertise hot and cold breakfast. We were presented with an assortment of hard cookies, and nothing hot. We stayed there for three nights. On Saturday, we visited the mercato in Sulmona where I purchased a few outfits and three pairs of shoes. That day, I went back to the house, tried it all on, and then put my purchases on the table, to be packed later. That was my first mistake- I should have hidden my things.

The night before we left, we all went to dinner around 20:30. My brother, feeling that he was under dressed for the restaurant, returned to his room to change his shirt. He found the door to his room open, and the proprietor told him to go in, and that his wife (Anna) was in their bathroom, “getting a hair dryer”. Which, weirdly and with tremendous impropriety, she was. The next day we packed our belongings, and I checked, as I always do, that we had left nothing behind. But upon arriving at our next destination, I realized that I did not have the three pairs of shoes that I purchased at the market. I contacted the property, and they told me that the shoes were not in the apartment. I had a friend from town visit the property to check herself. They found nothing. This was very weird considering that we had just left there and made no other stops. I inquired with the proprietor and told them that I found it very inappropriate and suspicious that his wife had waited for all of us to leave for dinner that night before sneaking into my brother’s room. He told me that since they are the owners, it is their “right” to enter the room at ANY time. There is NOTHING on their website (or any 3rd party booking site) that informs guests that they reserve the right to enter rooms when the occupant is not there. Let me be very clear: they did not enter to clean, make beds, restore amenities, or any of the routine actions that constitute typical housekeeping. They just waited until we were gone and entered our rooms. If we had been made aware that they planned to do this while we were there, I would have hidden my valuable items. A week later, the proprietor reached out to me through Booking.com to let me know that they had found my shoes inside of a fireplace (what?!). They agreed to ship the shoes to me (at MY expense), but rather than honor the agreement, they dropped them off at the home of an elderly and infirm acquaintance in town. Awful.

the location, hosts and facilities

The warmth and kindness of the hosts were unique. They made us feel like old friends and were very flexible in accommodating friends joining us at the last minute. The quality of the food was superb, breakfast was great (home-made cakes and pastries, eggs and omelettes, etc.) and the on-demand dinners were memorable!

Everything was really up and beyond expectations. Location is not breathtaking per se, but it is still beautiful, very quiet, and extremely well located to reach several other destinations.