we have recently returned from a world trip and tuscany is one of the wonderful places we visited and what made it a highlight was staying at fattoria settemerli it makes me so sad reading some of the previous reviews how anyone can say any thing bad about this place amazes me.From the moment we arrived (we had a car which i would recommend travelling through tuscany),we were welcomed by the beautiful owner connie she showed us to our room we had a choice of two rooms one better than the other they were decorated so beautiful ,very clean ,with lots of special touches and a gorgeous bath room the aircondition was so welcoming as it was hot,this lady was so helpful and helped us in every way she can and when she wasnt there barbara her helper was so so wonderful and kind,we love the tranquility ,the garden ,dining room and everything about this beautiful farm house, these people were so beautiful that there were another 3 couples staying there celebrating birthdays and connie and barbara cooked up a feast for them and two days later another feast which we were included and it was beautiful italian food .has for location its a great place to stay just out of florence which is easy to get to by bus only 20 min we even just went there just for dinner. and easy to get to all the other lovely tuscany towns like sienna ,san gimanio lucca etc .i would definatly recomend this piece of paradise.thankyou so much connie and your beautiful little girl viola and babara for a wonderful experience,you deserve the best good luck

very nice place, nice pond, nice view, very nice owners, clean, good shower.
booked it with FLORENCEBY.COM

Let's do an IS/IS NOT:

IS:
Accessible. We had a car, and were glad of it, but the #36 bus stops right at the gate and goes directly into the center of Florence (but beware, tickets for buses must be bought at a "tobacco shop" or news stand and validated once you board). By car it's 10 minutes to the Porta Romana car park south of the Pitti Palace and Boboli gardens, and from there you can catch the bus or walk 20 minutes to the center. We were in the "real" countryside in 20-25 minutes, and it's only about 1 hour from Siena (highly recommended).

Friendly. The cat and the parrot are a nice addition. The cat, however, did deposit 2 "presents" in the courtyard that he had hunted down the night before in the field.. which the staff quickly disposed of.

Quiet. There is some noise from round-the-clock construction of a tunnel, but it was not a bother at night with the windows closed, and I'm VERY sensitive to noise. Every morning we awoke to a symphony of birds - very nice. We were especially thankful to have a mellow, isolated place to relax at the end of the day, where kids can run around outside with no worry.

Comfortably and tastefully furnished. We had rooms in the secondary building and they were large, with plenty of storage for our belongings, and an adequate bathroom (shower, toilet, sink, bidet and shelves for our stuff). The beds and other furniture are in very good condition, but the mattress was about the firmest I've ever slept on in my life.

Good value for the money. We would not have liked to pay more than we did (who does), but by the same token would have been immeasureably sad had we taken something for the same price inside Florence.

IS NOT:

It's not an "unforgettable" locale. On coming into town just off the autoroute (Centosa/Galluzzo, which as near as we could tell is administratively a part of Florence), we were a bit worried. The main square is shabby (though perfectly safe), and the little commercial area holds no interest. It's a working-class area. But you came to see the Duomo, not the Coop. There is a rather impressive monastery up on the hill, which is open for guided tours. Thankfully, the property itself is a comfortable distance away. Consider that you will not get the "urban experience" here - you will not be able to just pop into a cafe or run over for a quick look at the sites.

I would not call this the countryside, but rather an as yet undevelopped zone of many acres in what used to be the country. Yes, there are horses and a small vegetable garden, but it's not a farm. The main security gate from the road is entered with a code or remote control, then you go along a dirt road for about a quarter mile or so till you reach the farmhouse. It's NOT "A room with a view" and it's not "Under the Tuscan sun", so if that's what you want, you should look elsewhere.

This is not run like a hotel, which would have been nice to know - maybe just our inexperience with this kind of lodging. The rooms are not made every day, and the towels are changed only every other day, though you can get more if you ask - everything was of course just fine on arrival. Soap dispenser in the bathroom, but no complimentary bars of soap or shampoo for the shower, so bring your own. Beware there is not always staff around, so make SURE they know your hour of arrival or make arrangements. No telephone, no TV (fine by us, but good to know). I would say that given the fact that it is a bit out of the way and not staffed 24/7, if you have any worries about needing immediate medical assistance, you might want to try something more conventional.

If you are young and/or like minimalist furnishings (i.e. no tat) then dont stay here. We arrived and were shown to an attic room swathed in a red light reminiscent of a Hitchcock thriller or a French avant garde film about Parisian ladies of the night. The red light was due to to the fact that the blind on the skylight was broken and covered with a pinned up pink/red pillowcase but, when it was pulled down, revealed our "view" of a chimney and the car park.

It also revealed the dust and overall tattiness of the room and its cleanliness.

Just to cheer us up that afternoon my wife was bitten 30 times in 30 minutes by an errant mosquito as we tried to see the bright side of our room over a bottle of Chianti.

The local village was OK with a nice pizza place on the main square. When in Florence we tried a Florentine steak which was poor in comparison with the one we had the following day when driving round Tuscany.

The breakfast was served at such a time that if we had have bothered to have it we would have been forced to queue for ages in Florence for the attractions (in the event we chose to eat breakfast at McDonalds or stood up in a cafe rather than sat down outside as that cost several times what we paid)

Overall I would not return to this place unless guaranteed one of the better rooms, if at all. Our feeling was that the Brits (us) who could not speak much Italian were given the lowest quality rooms as we could not coherently complain and when I did ask to be moved the little English spoken by the landlady (Madame?) dissolved into nothing but a shrug of the shoulders.

I do not feel we were given what was promised by the photos and other reviews.