Dionisia
What were the highlights of your holiday? One continual highlight.
what was your overall impression of the accommodation?    We loved it ,excellent, plenty of room, very comfortable. English DVD's pleasant surprise Very clean, everything supplied. Beautiful views and surroundings.
Did you have any unpleasant surprises? The road. You really need a vehicle that you don't care what happens to. We had been told about it but even so it was a shock. We did get used to it as the week wore on.
Do you have any other comments? used mo re than a couple of appliances together and the electricity would cut out
Barrie & Pamela Cobb
Australia
September 2009

Il Tramonto
What were the highlights of your holiday?
what was your overall impression of the accommodation?    The cottage was a decent size. Nice garden and gazebo area.
Did you have any unpleasant surprises? Yes. The track to the property. Although once there we were shown an alternative track which was slightly less hairy and quicker. Whilst understanding that we were staying in vineyards (we have also stayed at Montibuoni three times before) I didn't remember the insect life so unbearable; we were unable to lie by the pool due to this problem. I realize that you are unable to do much about that but mention it because it really impacted negatively on the holiday.
Do you have any other comments? Just want to say a big thank you to Dympna for handling our arrangements. We will continue to recommend you to our friends and family.
Joanne Mitchell
United Arab Emirates
August 2009

Il Tramonto
Was waren die Highlights Ihres Urlaubs? Für uns waren neben der herrlichen Ruhe und der schönen Unterkunft, die kleine Stadt Radda, und die Städten Arrezzo, Siena, San Gimignano und Gaiole die Highlights.
Wie war Ihr Gesamteindruck von der Unterbringung? Die Unterkunft war genauso wie auf der Webseite abgebildet - sehr schön und geschmackvoll eingerichtet mit allem was man so braucht. Wir hatten nie das Gefühl, daß hier etwas fehlt. Einen portablen DVD-Spieler hatten wir mitgenommen, damit wir Filme statt das schlimme italienische Fernsehen gucken konnten. Der Pool war groß und selten von den anderen Bewohnern benutzt. Vom Pool aus hat man einen herrlichen Blick über die Toskana. Abends kann man sehr schön und sehr romantisch auf der Terrasse beim Sonnenuntergang zu Abend essen. Mit den hohen Hecken ist der Garten gut abgeschirmt und ideal zum Sonnen und Lesen.
Gab es unangenehme Überraschungen? Unangenehm fanden wir nichts, aber enttäuschend waren Florenz und Greve. Bei der Unterkunft gab es keine unangenehmen Überraschungen. Wir können sie mit gutem Gewissen weiterempfehlen.
Haben Sie andere Anmerkungen? Man muß sich auf die steinige und hoppelige Zufahrtsstrasse gefaßt machen. Man braucht kein Geländewagen, aber man muß vorsichtig und oft im ersten Gang zu fahren. Tiefergelegten Autos haben hier nichts zu suchen.
Kristina Klapper
Germany
August 2009

Dionisia
What were the highlights of your holiday? Everything, every day we drove to a diffferent city and each experience was culturally amazing. On the off days, we just relaxed at the villa and enjoyed the beautiful weather and gorgeous views.
what was your overall impression of the accommodation?    The villa was more than we expected, it was beautiful and we loved every minute of it. Absolutely stunning, very clean and comfortable.
Did you have any unpleasant surprises? The only dislike would be the dirt road up to the villa. I think customers should be warned beforehand in order to hire the appropriate vehicle, I have done a lot of travelling on dirt roads before but this dirt road was more like rock boulders.
Do you have any other comments? I have no other comments.
Jackie Davidson
United Kingdom
August 2009
On the website is the following information regarding the road "Approach road - 2km uneven dirt track, a high clearance vehicle is recommended when staying at this property."

Dionisia
What were the highlights of your holiday? Radda in Chianti is a charming town. Porciatti Alimentari and butcher is fantastic - especially the huge Fiorentina Bistecca, which we cooked on the coal BBQ with some rosemary from the garden - expensive, but you have to do it - YUM! Lunch at Badia a Coltibuono - so peaceful and cool on a hot day. Pecorino budino with shaved truffle at Ristorante da Remo in Monteriggioni - absolutely sublime. Sitting out in the garden at night , sipping the last of the wine, watching the fireflies dance among the lavender, roses and bay bushes. Some lovely, long walks to compensate for all the eating!!
what was your overall impression of the accommodation?    Dionisia was just gorgeous, exactly what we wanted, and in fact, it exceeded our expectations. A lovely, comfortable home, well equipped to a very high standard. The views from the terrace and garden were glorious. The hamlet of Capannole is very peaceful and picturesque. While we were there the gardeners planted a bay hedge around the pool area, making it seem more private. The pool has a view to Radda. We were so lucky to have the place almost to ourselves for the week. Can't wait to return.
Did you have any unpleasant surprises? I have to mention the access road being used in June 09. It was terrible. The website said unpaved dirt/gravel road, but it was much worse than that. We do however understand that the usual access road was being repaired at the time. Our Fiat 500 struggled every time. We would happily have hired a 4WD, if only we had been warned. It did change our plans for week somewhat at Dionisa - the thought of coming home at night on that road, had no appeal at all. We did get a puncture in the day....and that was bad enough!!!
Do you have any other comments? Great idea to have the starter pack. However, with Dionisia, some of the contents were a little irrelevant. This house is quite well stocked already with sugar, teabags, garbage bags, dishwasher tabs. We would have liked to substitute more fresh items, packet pasta, and a lighter or matches for all those beautiful candles. Just a thought.
Jane Steele
Australia
June 2009
a recommendation for 'high-sided' or 'high clearance' vehicle is made for arrivals to Capannole. DD

overall impression: We were delighted - lovely and cool in the day, warm at night, well-equipped, clean and spacious.
highlights: The peace, the privacy and having a pool where we swam for the most part
just by ourselves.
David Bryer (Accommodation: Elisa)

Overall impression: Well equiped and comfortable.Good value for money. The view from the pool is terrific.
Highlights: Exploring the Chianti villages. Friendly locals (v. nice family from Siena own one of the neighbouring villas). Dinner under the pagoda with the family.
Unpleasant surprises: Not really. We arrived at the apartment at 10pm so we struggled driving up the unpaved road in the dark but the instructions were good and we did not get lost. Scratched the car against a hedge that night.
Haydar  (Accommodation: Elisa)

The cottage was fine - the bedroom is a little narrow but apart from that the accommodation was just what we wanted.The cottage was very attractive and the pool was excellent.
The area surrounding Capanolle was very nice with lots of very attractive towns and villages and other interesting things to explore. Excellent restaurants within easy reach(once you had negotiated the road in and out of the site!!). It would have been helpful if there had been rather more information on restaurants etc in the house folder - locations - price ranges etc. However this was not a major issue.
An unexpected bonus was the variety of wild life which we encountered in the area round the cottage. We saw a porcupine, wild boar, two different types of deer, a snake, a polecat, various birds of prey, owls and a fox in the garden. Given the propensity which our Italian neighbours have for shooting anything that moves this was very unexpected.
When we arrived there were no sun loungers in the garden and it had been indicated that these would be available. Contact with your reps resulted in the delivery of two rather ancient loungers on the Sunday morning. There were cracks in the frames of the loungers provided which meant that one had to be very careful not to have them fold up under you. This was a negative mark.
While it had been indicated that the roadway in to the property was not a tarred road it came as a bit of a shock that the surface was as bad as it actually was. Had we brought our own car which has low profile tyres and alloy wheels we would have been in considerable difficulty.
We would certainly consider going to the Chianti region again.
One thing which surprised us was that when we were in Taverna D'Arbia three years ago at very much the same time of year we found Sienna very attractive. In particular we found that it was not too crowded and one could move around and see things without being thronged by crowds of people. On the one day (a Monday) which we visited Sienna this time we were horrified by the crowds, and I mean crowds of people. It really spoilt the ambience of the city which we had found so attractive just three years ago. Maybe we just hit it on a bad day but I would not now recommend it to potential visitors as the friendly easy going place we enjoyed so much the last time we were there. Assisi and Perugia, which we visited on our way up from Rome were much less crowded and consequently very much more enjoyable.
Two restauarnts which we visited while at the cottage and which we found very special were Badia a Coltibuonno (on the uper side of medium price
range) and Castello di Spoltenna (expensive but worth it), both of which are near Gaiole. We would recommend them to anyone, even the most demandingof customers.The Fattoria Vignale in Radda  (on the uper side of medium price range)is good but rather overdoes the formality bit and the food is not of the same standard as the other two mentioned above.
We were very lucky with the weather, we had sunshine almost right through our two weeks and this makes a huge difference.
All in all we had a most enjoyable holiday and despite the slight problem with the sunloungers and the more than somewhat exciting! roads in and out we would recommend it to anyone looking for a quite and peaceful holiday! At the height of the season when all the cottages in the hamlet would probably be occupied it might just become a little crowded but in September it was just what we wanted.
Many thanks to all at To Tuscany.
Neil  (Accommodation: La Quiete)

Overall impression: Very comfortable.
Highlights: Mine was the cooking class and my husband's was relaxing by the pool reading.
Unpleasant surprises? No.
Leah (La Quiete)