Ok so it is not very easy to get to this hotel. We drove from Lake Garda to Tuscany and obtained directions through MapQuest which were very helpful until we got around Siena. From there the directions get very vague and just tell you to turn right in 800m or left in 2 km. Considering there are many roundabouts we got lost. So we stopped at a local gas station/car repair shop and since I don't speak Italian but do speak Spanish managed to explain where we wanted to go. One of the attendants was nice enough to escort us to the hotel :)

The area around the hotel is beautiful. There are endless rolling hills...you literally feel like you are in the middle of nowhere. Note: may not be best suited for those who get sick to their stomach easily since the roads in/out are extremely windy (as in they wind alot, not the weather). The hotel was ok...the room was very large and we had a balcony facing the view. The reception was polite but couldn't really recommend anywhere where we could book a wine tour or any tours for that matter, One woman did suggest we visit Volterra, a nearby (about 20km) old town atop a very large mountain/hill that specializes in alabaster production. There was also some kind of torture museum there for those who are interested in that.

We didn't have time to use the hotel's pool but it always looked busy. All in all the hotel served the purpose was had intended- a place where we could base ourselves and explore cities in Tuscany. Next time we'll probably stay totally in Tuscany rather than commuting to other places.

Having been told just before our holiday that we were being re-located to this hotel because of sanitation problems at their sister hotel (Gemini Hotel) about 4 miles away we were pleased with the location and beautiful far-reaching views. The room was spacious and had a private patio on to the garden. Cleaning was thorough and linen and towels changed regularly during our 10 day stay. The reception staff - French, German and English were helpful and pleasant. I had lovely aromatherapy massages (by a Romanian girl) and the gym facilities looked good although the jacuzzi was grubby.
UNFORTUNATELY the food in the hotel was poor, breakfast was a buffet of indifferent ham, processed cheese, cold boiled egg, some cereals, long-life packet croissant, bread that appeared stale every day and awful coffee. There was also a choice of tinned pineapple or tinned fruit salad every day for 10 days!!! In a country where the markets were overflowing with gorgeous fresh fruit - we started bringing in our own!! We were told that Italians don't do breakfast just coffee and croissant - well one of the delicious fresh croissants from the village bakery would have been fine for us, or a choice of the fresh breads we saw everywhere.
As the nearest restaurant was 4 miles away ('The Colombaia') and another one was an Enoteca in the village serving the same meal to everyone with no choices and no menu, the hotel restaurant was more convenient but the only thing we enjoyed was fillet steak (we asked them to hold the gloopy sauce!) Unfortunately always served with frozen frittes! Our verdict on the food was agreed with by other residents we spoke to of various nationalities.
It was very warm during our stay (28c) and nights were hot and sticky but we were told by the staff that by Italian law the aircon had to be switched off by the 1st October - so we sweltered!
It was quiet at the hotel and we did wonder whether it had just been a cost cutting exercise to move us and others over from the sister hotel. The Spanish owners were apparently on holiday in Spain so we couldn't ask them!
This hotel is well situated for visiting the beautiful Tuscan towns and villages - close to San Gimignano, Sienna and Volterra but do your homework before you go as the hotel do not provide any tourist information whatsoever - not a single leaflet in the room or at reception!! You must have a car as public transport was non existent, it was too far to walk to the village comfortably and taxis difficult to track down!
The advertised 'satellite' TV ( for english speakers) means CNN and BBC World news only!

Great and beautifull hotel, but the service is very poor.

It took them 3 days to send someone to activate the interent ( ethernet connection $6 for 2 hours ) and 3 days to repair the safe.

Sorry is a word that they do not understand.

Breakfast is average always te he same burned croissants.

We took a lunch , that was very poor.

To bad becouse the place look great.

I booked this hotel as a nice break for my fiancés birthday. The hotel is very modern structure set in the Tuscan countryside with good facilities (we were primarily interested in the indoor & outdoor swimming pools). The rooms are of a good size and with air-conditioning. There two floor levels; the top floor rooms having a balcony and the lower a small garden area. The ground level rooms are less secluded as the gardens are only separated by wooden lattice frames.

Everything was fine until we went for dinner that we had booked with the hotel. The food that was served was simply terrible.

The ‘menu of the day’ (incidentally I noticed was the same menu as the previous day) had a choice of three starters and three main courses. I chose the seafood linguine to start with, and the dish looked and tasted like it had been cooked many hours previously and had been kept on the heat – the squid, prawns and parsley had all turned a brownish colour. Not nice. The other dishes were equally poor. The food that was served here seemed like a cynical exercise in cost cutting.

If my fiancé and I had not had anything to drink, we would have left and tried to find an alternative.

It is a shame, the hotel is otherwise fine (if perhaps a little expensive for what it is) and would be perfect place to take young children. But the fact that the restaurant food is so bad, and the nearest restaurant (in Casole d’Elsa) is 4km away means that I can not really recommend a visit.