Agriturismo Il Poderaccio

De locatie was prachtig. Het was een zeer prettige contact met Davide. Hij attendeerde ons op goede restaurants en andere locaties zonder daar belang bij te hebben. Naast de top locatie kregen we ook een klein stukje van de oogst, tomaten en olijfolie, dank hiervoor. Zeker voor herhaling vatbaar voor als we over een paar jaar weer naar Italië gaan.

De badkamer was schoon alleen was het douchegordijn niet meer helemaal goed.

Rauhallinen sijainti kuitenkin lähellä Firenzeä. 10min autolla raitiovaunupysäkille ja siitä ratikalla keskustaan alle 2 eur / lippu. Näkymät ovat upeat ja aamukahvit terassilla katsellen auringon nousua hakee verstaistaan. Meillä oli premium huoneisto, joka oli tilava ja siisti. Davide oli ystävällinen ja kertoi hyvät vinkit mm. ruokapaikkojen suhteen. Etenkin ravintola Fiore ja sen pihviannokset olivat parasta mitä ollaan reissuilla syöty.

You need a car to enjoy your holydays at Poderaccio, but it's only a 10mn drive to escape from the olive trees in the middle of the quiet hills -still restaurants are within walking distance at the village close by- to the tram taking you to some of the most exceptional museums and cultural sites around Europe. Davide was extremely helpful everytime we needed anything. He did a collossal work to rehabilitate what used to be a ruin 30 years ago to make it a beautiful, clean place with apartments that will fit needs of families from 2 to many more. The way old houses are organised made it so we hardly had to use any AC, by opening/closing the right windows as a function of the sun course. Bed was good. Washing machine is a good asset. Pool is perfectly clean, and so are its surroundings and more generally the outdoors all around, very well maintained. The pool area could be opened up until a little later (one hour extra?), though it is possible to ask for a little delay. People were in general respectful of the rules for the pool area (though it took 10 mn of diving and splashing by some kids before the parents finally handled the situation, just before we felt we had to say something). People also spontaneously turned down their music trying to be respectful, which was ok but still, having music in the background even at low volume was not our idea of total relaxation at the pool (especially dance or rap which are not 'our kind' of music of 'almost boomers'). Fortunately we had some time at the pool with noone else or with very quiet families for total relaxation so in the end it was great but it seems unavoidable to eventually forbid audio devices to legitimate guests having to ask others to turn it OFF (and not just down).

There was the bare minimum equipment to cook, we found a few things were missing to make it a little easier: no bowl, no microwave, no kettle (though it was mistakenly listed). The italian coffe maker was just big enough for 2 teeny tiny cups of coffee -the size of italian expressos, obviously-, fortunately we had planned to buy ours 6 persons to bring back so it was ok. The small terrace area of the Libeccio apt has to be shared with the neighbouring apartment (tables are 2m apart), which could be potentially problematic but we were lucky to have cool neighbours with whom we got along and had a few drinks! Their dog was adorable and was not source of any problem but it could be another source of concern (just like a kid in that 3-person apt could).

location, pool, parking

It’s an old house in a really hot region. It doesn’t have air conditioning and it’s really badly isolated. You have 2 small fans to try to cool it and that’s it. It has 4 great windows that can’t be fully opened because of the mechanical system. There is also a problem of mosquitoes… The lower floor where the bedrooms are have smaller windows that can be fully opened but because of the holes in the mosquitos net you risk not sleeping because of the mosquitoes. In the upper floor mosquitoes are also a problem and you can’t be comfortable in the house, after a long day getting to know Tuscany. There are also big cracks in the glass of 2 of these big windows and in the glass doors that you use to enter the house. Everything added, the house was so hot during the night that it was very difficult to sleep or to do anything. Beside these problems, the wifi is very weak and only accessible in the upper floor. We also had a problem with the reservation maybe because of us, but with a strange solution. We reserved the house with 5 people capacity for only one couple by mistake and in fact we were 2 couples. Because of this we had to pay an extra of 385e for the accommodation for 7 days. I find this strange because in booking.com changing the number of people doesn’t affect the price, we are paying for a 5 people house…