Villas in Tuscany & Umbria Since 1998

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)

Overall impression: Dionisia was perfect in all aspects. Very comfortable and very charming. It felt like home. I would strongly recommend that you include air conditioning. The master bedroom was so warm that we had to sleep in the living room all week. But then again, we knew we did not have this included. If air conditioning is impossible at the least include a fan.
Unpleasant surprises:On the first night the smoke alarm started for no reason. The detector had batteries that were expired... Once we found a solution on how to remove, we were able to enjoy our first night.
Gina (Accommodation: Dionisia)

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: 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)

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)