Garden House does have two good points; good location and quite comfortable beds. We signed up, as two couples, for 5 nights in an apartment with two double bedrooms, kitchen, garden access and (as clearly stated on the website) separate bathrooms.

The lady of the house, who is charm itself, speaks Italian only. This is fine for Italian guests but non-speakers may find as we did that the process of exchanging emails during the booking process is very tedious, as is the language barrier when dealing with
her in person.

The photos on the Garden House website have been carefully staged to give an impression of a gracious, old-fashioned family villa. It is nothing of the sort. The rooms are fusty, musty and very basic, and the property itself is a rabbit-warren of rooms and apartments. Our kitchen was pre 1950s vintage and in bad repair - you wouldn't really contemplate it for cooking, but at least it was the one communal place in the whole apartment. The one and only bathroom was small, barely clean and full of some other person's half-used soap, toiletries and other stuff. The garden looks charming on the website but it is dank and smelt strongly of cat piddle, catfood, unemptied ashtrays and stale wine.

Garden House is noisy, with an amplified telephone ringer going off at all hours and the lady of the house making and taking phone calls on top note! She has no concept of the idea that paying money for accommodation entitles the guest to peace, quiet and privacy; lights that were left on were found to have been turned off in our absence, and the clincher was the occasion when one of the moggies (who have free entry to this property via multiple cat doors) wandered into the bathroom where one of the ladies was having a private moment. A middle-aged pair of female hands appeared around the open door at floor level, extracted the cat and disappeared with it - probably through one of the many mysterious doors in the apartment - to who knows where. Nice experience!

There is more, but I can sum it up by saying that Garden House was probably the worst accommodation we experienced anywhere in Italy during our six weeks there. Don't believe what you see on the website and don't pay the exorbitant asking price (240 Euros/day for two double bedrooms and only one bathroom) for this third-rate property. There would be much better value elsewhere in Perugia.

My husband and I spent only 1 night at the B&B in September. Although it is 100 mtrs to the main Piazza IV Novembre, we arrived by taxi from the train station as it is too far to walk. Due to the one way street system, this is not a "door to door" journey and cost Euro 15,00. The closest point that the taxi could get to for the B&B was at the bottom of an extremely steep cobbled street and with heavy suitcases (thankfully on wheels) we huffed and puffed dragging our suitcases behind us before reaching the front door to Garden House B&B. Gianna who owns the B&B was very friendly and despite the language barrier she explained about the key system to the outer door from the street entry, and to our room. She mentioned several times that she only took cash. That was no problem but we thought it strange that running a B&B business there is no facility for guests to use a debit or credit card. Our room was clean and tidy, although it had a lot of household furniture also stored in it. The lighting was very poor in the room and it was absolutely impossible to read anything after sunset. The main lounge did indeed have beautiful furnishings but the lights were always turned off and we felt that they were meant to stay off so we found our way around in the dark upon our return from dinner. (The garden has a security light which comes on after dark but it only lasts for about 1 min before going out again so we spent some anxious moments fumbling around with the keys to get into the building - meanwhile back & forth to make the outside light turn on again! ) Our bathroom was down the hall, it's not an en suite. Shampoo and soap were supplied. There was a shower head over the big bath, but with no shower curtain the water tended to splash all over the floor unless you kneeled to wash your hair. I'm 5 ft. 10" and even I found it difficult to climb over the wide shelf to get in and out of the bath. Instead of 2 sets of matching towels as is normal in a B&B or hotel there was a hotch potch of towels unmatched in size, colour and quality - although everything was clean. The garden, although pretty, had no seating for guests so although it would appear a haven of calm away from the busy streets of Perugia it really is a misnomer. A few more major gripes ......we paid 90 Euro for Bed & Breakfast. Gianna explained that breakfast would be taken at Cafe Sandri up in Piazza IV November and gave us each a 'postcard' of the Cafe. On the reverse of each postcard was stamped Euro 1,90. We couldn't believe it when we went for breakfast the following morning as, upon presentation of our postcards and advising the staff we were guests at Garden House B&B, we were told that this entitled us to the smallest and cheapest of a pastry each, plus a tiny cup of coffee. We were basically treated with contempt by the staff and despite sitting at the bar counter at the back of the cafe, the waiter who delivered our coffees put them down at an adjacent table and walked away without even attempting to place them in front of us. So rude ! We were pretty annoyed that the "breakfast" portion of our tarriff was worth a measly Euro 1,90 and was THE worst breakfast we'd had during our entire month of travelling through Italy. The final annoyance, which we found extremely off-putting, was the fact that the complimentary 2 bottles of water that were placed in our room had UNSEALED tops, and on one bottle the top didn't even match the ring on the bottle. This meant that they were obviously filled from a tap, which begs the question, how well cleaned were the bottles before filling! All in all the awful breakfast experience, plus the unhygienic practise of giving guests bottles of water with the seals broken, left us feeling very disappointed with the Garden House B&B.

This is a cosy B&B tucked away in the back streets of perugia, but super centra. However, the pictures on the website are deceiving - expect 2-star accomodation. The decor is student-like with mismatched old sheets and well worn towels. The bathroom is tiny with scraps of old soap bottles (from previous guests?!?) and could do with a good scrub. Gianna was lovely however we felt slightly unnerved when we left one evening with a couple of lights on in our private kitchen only to find that on our return they had been mysteriously turned off. As per the previous review, do not expect privacy. Similarly, given the 14 degree max temperatures during the day, we asked for the heating to be turned on in the evening, only to be refused. The flat was uncomfortably cold and so unbearable that we either had to be in bed under the blankets or at a local restaurant.
We can only assume the previous reviewers who quoted a 5-star bathroom stayed in a different room. The rooms are spacious as is the kitchen but given the expensive price and reviews we expected a lot more. I wouldn't recommend this unless you stay in the summer, and do not expect to spend much time there.

The location is fantastic – just off the Corso Vannucci – but very peaceful and quiet. Breakfast at the Sandri Cafe is excellent. Our complaint was that the rooms may be cool in summer but felt very cold during the first week of November. We often visit Italy in November and are aware of a restriction but in both Rome and Florence, heating has been available. On the second night we asked Gianna to put the heating on. We don’t speak much Italian but understood enough to realise that she was very reluctant. We just wanted heating between 7 and 9 am and then between 6 and 10 pm. We spent all day out – eg Assisi, Gubbio, but wanted to feel warm when we returned about 6 or 7 pm, before going out for dinner. The flat is not functional because the cooker (range) did not work. We had to use the coffee maker to get hot (not boiling) water for a cup of tea. The flat is in theory self contained but the bathroom is next to her living quarters. On 4 occasions, unannounced and uninvited, she appeared in the flat. Do not rely on privacy.