We were looking forward to our second stay at Monteverdi, and if I am going to be honest and relevant with this review, we would have to say were greatly disappointed this time around.
(We wrote a glowing review after our first stay, so we feel we need to be candid about our most recent experiece here)
MonteVerdi is still a first class property but for the following reasons below, it will not be one that we would stay at again on our travels to Italy. By way of reference, and comparison, we have also stayed at other boutique/luxury properties in Italy, including, Lupai, Rosewood Castiglion Del Bosco, and Borgo SanPietro which are similar in pricing and in some cases less expensive.
Upon our first time arrival to the village like resort of MonteVerdi, we found ourselves lost in wonder of the beauty, charm and intentional preservation of the original small Italian historical village. It was a perfect restful place and a escape from our hectic lives at home, but attained to luxurious details and an authentic vibe.
At that time, there remained a few long time residents, however all the other homes were bought out by the MonteVerdi and converted to beautiful hotel rooms that were all unique. The rooms were of course fully modernized, but were beautifully decorated with a 'rustic meets refined' approach.
I'm a designer myself, and noted the unique design style. Very elegant, however loaded with rustic charm and details. There was a transitional feel, which mixed blended old world charm with the luxuries of today. There was only one restaraunt, and it was amazing.. with a beautiful tiered outdoor stone terrace that had the most incredible views of rolling tuscan hills. There was as a more casual and intimate bar which was amazing for before or after dinner cocktails also with a beutiful stone terrace. There was no spa at that time but they were starting renos for the beautiful spa that is there now.
Unfortunatley though, since our first visit, the quaint and intimate feel in our opinion is all but lost. It seems that MonteVerdi is run on a much more corporate level from American owners and/or developers. A much bigger and very modern restaraunt has replaced the authentic and charming one of the past. The modern furniture, (think north american modern restaraunt hotel style), as well as top 40 style american music playing, made us feel like we were no longer in Italy. We love italy for the historical charm and also enjoy boutique style hotels and restarounts for a more intimate and relaxing experience from our fast paced North American Life.
Unfortunately, in our opinion, MonteVerdi no longer feels this way. Although our first meal was very tasty, the experience seemed like we were eating in a restaraunt in Chicago rather then in the hill tops of Tuscany.
Traditional apartments have been changed into business meeting rooms, and added on several rooms and we were placed in one of these over the new restaraunt. Our room did not lack quality bedding fixtures, and details, however the design seemed cold with bold colours and modern furniture. We also experienced a lot of noise of moving furniture on the floors, either from the room above or the restaraunt below. In addition, since we were there in october, we needed heat at night, and despite, their efforts to get it working, we were without heat our entire stay. Keeping in mind the nightly rate for these rooms, this is not acceptable for a hotel of this caliber. Upon check out we were offered a sincere apology but nothing else. Perhaps a discount on the room would have been suitable to go along with the apology?
MonteVerde is not cheap. We regretted deeply spending what we did on a room that much of our valuable relaxing and sleep time was spent with the front desk and maintence in our room trying to fix the heating issue.
While we fully recognize things like this can happen, we would have valued a customer service gesture in one way or another, to compensate for the nuicance of dealing with such a thing while on holidays paying top dollar.
We did fully enjoy the cooking class and felt it was good value. It was a delightful experience where you get to enjoy the 'fruits of your labour' at a nice sit down lunch.
Perhaps some would prefer the new direction the owners of MonteVerdi are taking the property, to the way it once was, but we left wishing we had spent our holiday dollars at Lupai instead.
The heating issue, wasn't the main disappointment for us however, but rather the very obvious deviation from what once made this place so special, and the notable Americanization of such special little hilltop Tuscan Village.
