Our experience in this hotel was most surreal. Somehow we booked a room we couldn't have, but the way the hotel owner handled it was very... well, special. The owner reminded us very much of the couple running Fawlty Towers in the old sitcom.

By e-mail we agreed to have a room with 2 large beds for us and our four year old twins. Apparently this was not allowed because the room was officially a double room, but instead of quietly explaining things to us and offering us an alternative, the hotel owner screamed and yelled in our faces, complained about going nuts and kept on insulting her young (and friendly) employee in our presence. While gasping for breath, she would shout: Calm down, everybody, calm down!

She dragged us into a number of rooms we were not allowed to have, she kept putting us in different rooms and quoting different prices, starting at a price twice as high as agreed. In the meantime she kept lecturing us about how she had to respect the law and about how strict rules are enforced in Italy and how much she emphasised on order, cleanliness and regularity.

Finally we agreed on rooms we were allowed to go in. She promised us that we could have them for the price we had previously agreed on. We insisted on paying (and having our passports back) at night and not the next morning. This was greeted with a "Hah, now you think I will try to rip you off. Well, I am not like that, because [insert lecture]..." but truth be told, she was right. We did not really trust her anymore.

As long as we we were in our rooms, she kept being busy in the hall, only to start a new lecture as soon as she saw anyone of us. On a number of occasions she marched into our rooms until we told her to go out. She was often gnawing at a pizza slice whilst telling us about order and cleanliness. She would also freak out when our kids were in the hall by themselves, because she thought the stairs were very dangerous for four year olds.

All in all, I feel pretty sorry for this lady, who is obviously not capable of running a hotel and starts panicking the minute something is out of her control. Which is basically all the time. She couldn't do simple maths, and she doesn't really keep the rooms up to standard either (light bulbs didn't work, chairs were sellotaped together).

That said, the rooms are beautiful and spacious, the beds are alright, and the location is perfect. Still, if you don't want to spend the first hour of your stay fighting with an intrusive control freak, I suggest you do not pick this hotel.

This place is really cold, there is no elevator for the luggage. It is not allow to have breakfast. It is not possible to pay by credit card (only cash).

We stayed at this lovely little b and b last month for 1 week. We had a very warm welcome, the staff were very professional and extremely friendly, they could'nt do enough for us. Our room was on the third floor, it was very spacoius and stylish, we had a great balcony looking onto the Botanical gardens which was a plus. The room itself was very quiet so we slept very well and it had all the comforts of a first class hotel. The owner herself brought us clean towels everyday and she also put fresh sheets on the bed everyday too. It was very clean and comfortable. I cannot praise this place enough, we really enjoyed our stay and would stay there again. Just a few metres from the Field of Miracles, a great location, great bars and restaurants nearby.We also had air-conditioning which was great as it was very hot.We would like to thank the owner and staff for a lovely stay.

generally nobody speak English there. when cleaning lady destroyed my personal belongings left in the room, I couldn't communicate with anyone. disaster!