This castle-hotel was our wedding venue after oficial ceremony in Siena on Sept-24, 2011. Most of our guests stayed in the hotel as well. And everybody was satisfied.

I would like to thank all hotell staff leaded by Leonina's Director Renato for unforgetable perfect banquet and stay in the hotel. Renato helped us in all aspects, actually all about banquet and its decoration were organized by hotel and it was just perfect. And without any doubts I recommend Leonina not only for wedding (as mentioned above it is perfect :)) but also for vacations and 1-2 days breaks to enjoy Siena and Tuscany.

Leonina is a real medieval castle with 4* hotel inside in the center of one of the nicest area in Italy - Crete Senese. Around Castle you could see wild little animals. You will drive from Siena by one of the best views' road in the world Lauretana (trust me this road is worth to be experinced). So every trip from Leonina to Siena and other Senese towns (like Asciano, Montalcino, Montepulciano, Penza) will give you stunning views and photos.

I want also to mentioned that hotel staff was perfect and very helpfull and could assist to decide all questions - e.g. in 15 minutes to organize delivery directly to the castle of 15 bouquets for tomorrow - no problem, to find hair dressers for guests for tomorrow - the same, done :), to organaize 5 different transfers to Rome and Florence airports for guests - again, everything was managed.

Everybody who is going to stay in Leonina should know also that it is not only nice hotel but also very good restaurant with perfect service.

We hope that we will return to Leonina just for vacation not one time)).

Castle Leonina lies about ten kilometers from Siena and two kilometers from the town Ashyano in the heart of Tuscany. This was once a fortified manor in the second half of XVII century was converted into a fine summer residence for Pope Alexander VII (in the world - Fabio Chigi), a well-known philanthropist, a man highly educated and enlightened for his time.

The castle survived or were restored interior in an old Tuscan style. Today it is located luxury hotel, the whole situation is - carved wood panels, antique furniture, paintings, wrought iron lamps, velvet curtains, fireplaces and much more - like the old times. From the castle offers wonderful views of the Tuscan hills.

In 2003 the castle was subjected Leonina complete renovation, and houses the luxurious four-star hotel.

Castle-Hotel Leonina offers rooms and suites in a classic Tuscan style with all modern amenities. Total rooms in twenty-one, each equipped with a mini-bar, satellite TV, safe and air conditioning, some rooms have a fireplace.

The hotel has a restaurant, Tuscan cuisine Il Balcone di Leonina, and a bar with an excellent wine cellar, which represents the best wines of Tuscany. Of extra services, guests meeting room, conference room, Internet access, fitness center with massage, Jacuzzi, Turkish bath and aroma showers, two hundred meters from the main building housed a restaurant. There is a laundry room, free parking, on request can be granted to professional nanny service. The castle is traditionally used for romantic weddings, marriage is a special room set aside and built a special pavilion in the yard.

I work for a tour operator and my co-worker and I decided to 'scout' this place near Siena, as we pass by with our groups on a regular basis. The location is certainly charming, overlooking the Crete Senesi and Siena; the castello is well kept and the rooms are in line with the atmosphere (that is, not too bucolic yet with interesting details ). The highlight of our stay (1 night) was the staff: more than accommodating and flexible to our needs. We also dined at the hotel's restaurant one night and unfortunately we were not able to eat on the terrace which I think it would be a wonderful setting for a romantic dinner ! Overall, a very positive stay !

I went to Castello di Leonina for a 1 week long break at the end of May, when Tuscany has a very pleasant weather as I well know, being an Italian myself: not too hot and definitely not overcrowded with tourists. The Relais Il Castello di Leonina was the first stop of a drive around Val di Chiana and Val D’Orcia, just outside Siena and the location looked really amazing.
I choose to stay 1 night there because I found it on a guide to Relais and small high standard hotels, its pictures of the white road with cypress on both sides impressed me most and I thought it would have made it the perfect location for the start of a holiday “under the Tuscan sun”.

Unfortunately when we got there at 7pm on a Saturday evening the first welcome I received from the place was the definitively distasteful smell in the lobby, the second was an even more unpleasant welcome at the reception desk.
In fact the lady there, immediately after checking my reservation, told me that it was impossible to have dinner at the restaurant. Of course I told her that one of the reason for staying in that place overnight was the restaurant itself and considering that that day had already been a full day of driving and moreover that the first village was at least 15/20 mins drive away, I was sure the chef would have accommodated 2 more people. We would hav been more than happy to wait in order to have dinner later in the night. She said she would have checked but that would imply we have to wait at least until 9.30 to know if we were so lucky to have the pleasure to get the coveted prize of the table at the restaurant.
When we reached our room the view was amazing but the bathroom in particular was not what you might expect from a 200 Euros per night stay…only 2 real towels and 2 small light cotton ones.
In order to kill the time till the potential dinner and relax, we decided to stroll around and check out the swimming pool and hot tub…well we realised that the hot tub was under refurbishment and guess what? The swimming pool wasn’t cleaned up so that the water was a vivid green instead of light blue! Ridiculous because end of May with 25+ degrees, the swimming pool in the middle of the countryside makes the difference among different places! They were so bold to say that unfortunately given the very bad weather during the week it was impossible to do it…well we were in Tuscany for 3 days already and trust me, not one cloud…

Finally at 10pm we showed up at the reception of the hotel (because they kindly asked us not to go directly to the restaurant…mah) to qenquiry about the famous table at the restaurant and guess what? Obviously there was not a single available table as foreseen by the clairvoyant receptionist so che gave us the name of a restaurant and, as said, it was 10pm on a fine May evening in Italy. We were clever enough to ask the logorroic lady at the reception to kindly make the phone call to book the table for us, not because of potential crowdiness but to avoid that the kitchen would have already closed by the time we got there. Lucky we did it because the receptionist had basically to beg the restaurant to give us a table. Of course when we passed by the restaurant at the hotel we salivated for, we were very surprised in seeing the famous crowd there, but as you can imagine there were at least 2 free tables…

Bottom line, do not stay in Castello di Leonina because it is not worth the money compared to all nice places of the same standard and even cheaper that you can find in the same area. Luckily my week continued in some other much nicer places with far better service and same wonderful location, the Tuscan valley of Chiana and Orcia