My wife and I stayed here for four days at the end of June. We were originally booked in for a week, but were significantly disappointed and decided to leave early. We booked into Villa Pitiana because my wife had stayed there with her sister about 15 years ago and were looking for a nice place to relax for a week after a week of seeing the sights from a base near San Gimignano. On the positive side, the building and grounds are beautiful, and the views absolutely stunning (although the interior was not done up in nearly as grand a manner as when my wife visited 15 years previously). When we checked in we were upgraded to a suite (presumably because the place was almost deserted). While large, with fantastic views of the surrounding valleys and hills, the suite was very tired. It had a new bathroom (although there was no shower curtain, so the floor got wet when you took a shower in the bathtub) which did not match up at all with the rest of suite, which could have used a very superficial makeover to make it a much more pleasant and upmarket place to stay.
The staff, while nice enough for the most part, had a very lackadaisical attitude. They had just had a very busy time with a wedding (this would be a very impressive place to have a wedding) and seemed to be looking forward to an easier time for a bit. On the first day we went down to the pool, which is large but a little odd. While there is a very small, separate pool for kids to splash around, the main pool is very deep throughout its entire length. So it might be good for just swimming, but not really good for just relaxing in the water. Further, to get to the pool - which is surrounded by a hedge - you need to go through a narrow break in the hedge. There is a shower in the entrance (although many people didn't seem to realize it was a shower), which was a bit tired (and cold). More worryingly, however, there was a swarm of wasps which you needed to walk though to get to the pool. Not good. After going to the pool, we decided to have lunch, so wandered back up to the main building since there was a note saying that lunch was available at the bar. Nobody was at the bar, so we went to the front desk, where we were told that we could have a ham and cheese sandwich or a mozzarella and tomato sandwich. That's it - and they didn't seem to think this was strange.
This was indicative of the lack of amenities at the hotel. If you want a drink at a bar in the evening, you need to figure out that you need to go to the restaurant to ask somebody to come to the bar to serve you. And speaking of the restaurant, this was a very limited affair. There was no menu just outside the restaurant; rather, it was around the corner in the passageway to the elevator. The menu itself was very limited, with no daily specials. And it only changed every couple of weeks, so there was little choice. The food was not outstanding and expensive for what you got. Further, one of the waiters was very rude to us. We arrived at the restaurant at the time of our reservation. There was nobody there to greet us, so we sat down at a table next to a window. The waiter came out and told us that we could not sit there. We had to move. We could sit at any other open table – of which there were many – just not at that one. There was no reserved sign on the table. He did not explain why. Nor did he seem to understand that it was a problem that he had just embarrassed us by making us move tables. A few minutes later, another couple walked in and sat down at the original table. They were allowed to stay. I also had to return the beef that I had ordered because is was so chewy that the only way I could swallow it was in huge pieces. There is not much else nearby (except for a pizza place down the hill in the town, which we can recommend), so you will need to go fairly far afield to find anything else to eat. None of this is what one would expect from a 4 star hotel. You expect to be able to spend some time relaxing at the hotel - at least we did - with access to enough amenities to respond to your needs for food and drink. It just doesn't exist.
The hotel is relatively handy for the train to Florence - it is a 15 minute drive to the train station, and only a half an hour or so on the train into Florence. You need to get to the station relatively early to get a parking place. We were surprised that the hotel did not have a shuttle to the station - and they didn't tell us about taxi possibilities. Since we had a car, this was not too big of a problem, although it did mean that as driver I couldn't have wine with my dinner in Florence (not a deal breaker, but would have been nice…). Still, this is exactly the kind of service a hotel like this should provide. It is also near some nice places in the mountains. But, do not go to Villa Pitiana expecting to just be able to relax for a week - there is just not enough there to facilitate that.
When we asked at the reception about leaving early - we had booked for a week - the person said she needed to talk with her boss, although she didn't seem to understand why we were unhappy. She focused in on the lack of lunch options. Although that was one thing, it was indicative of a much bigger problem with the hotel. She also asked us to write down exactly why we were unhappy so she could give that to the manager - which was rather insulting. Why couldn't she just relate what we had told her - it was not complicated. In the end, they were OK with us leaving, although it took a while to get an answer - and we ended up staying a night longer than we wanted because of this.
In sum, this is a beautiful building in a beautiful setting, which has not been maintained properly (the finishing in our suite was very haphazard) and which is very let down by the overall level of amenities and service. It is more than faded grandeur - it is neglected grandeur. We found out that the owner has opened a new fancy holiday village down the hill. There was somebody at the hotel trying to sell shares in the apartments. It looked very nice from the pictures, but it helped us understand what had happened to Villa Pitiana. The owner is obviously putting all of his resources into his new venture and trading on the reputation of Villa Pitiana while letting it go downhill. Very sad. We won't be going back.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
