Farm House Podere Ponticello - Orvieto

9.0

wonderful

6.2

It would have been helpful to know that we had to go elsewhere to register and obtain keys. Having sat outside the farmhouse for about an hour, we were able to find out from another guest, who spoke only Italian, but was very patient and helpful, that we had to go to "Reception" down the road. There was no mention of this in the information provided; neither did it tell you that meals were not available on the premises, but that you had to go to a central restaurant at another farmhouse about 5 minutes drive away. Having said this, the room was as described and fine. There was a small common room with a TV and a fridge which was kept stocked with bottled water. The restaurant food was ok, but certainly not the best that we had on our tour and offered no choice. Breakfast was poor, consisting of semi-toasted bread, which was so hard that it was difficult to break, let alone bite; butter, jam, cake , juice and coffee. We were expecting a view of a lake(although to be fair, the site does only say it's near the lake), but the only bit visible from the house was the concrete dam. The property is surrounded by fields, so is peaceful, most of the time. It was just our luck to be there when ploughing started when it got light at about 4.45a.m.! All the people we dealt with were pleasant, and I suppose it wasn't bad value for money, but I wouldn't wholeheartedly recommend it.

8.1

Important facts not mentioned: Checkin is 500m West of the actual Agriturismo! Breakfast is at a different, but beautfiul house on a hill a few kilometers away! You will not find this address on any internet mapping program. So telephone ahead!

6.1

This listing shouldn't be for Podere Ponticello, it should be for the Tenuta di Cobara as this is who you actually stay with - Ponticello is just the name of one of their buildings. We drove all the way to Italy without knowing this and only found out when we knocked on the door of the Ponticello and had this explained to us by the people staying there who told us to go somewhere else to check in. No maps were provided when booking and it took us over 2 hours to find the tenuta di corbara after we got to Orvieto. The other thing that should be made clear about the tenuta di corbara is that no one speaks a single word of English - this wouldn't be so bad if this was made clear up front so we could have been better prepared. Whilst these are all bad points, the postive ones are that it is one of the most beautiful areas we have ever visited and the accomodation is very comfortable even if it is a little of the pricey side. The facilities were reasonable but they were never explained to us (because we couldn't understand Italian) and so we didn't make that much use of them. A good example is that we had dinner on the first night at the main house but didn't know what we were getting or what we were paying for it. Thanks does need to go to the waitress who served us as she was extremely helpful once we explained we were vegetarian using our very poor italian. Overall we just feel that we would have enjoyed our stay so much more had known the things we know now - we would still have been glad we booked the stay, just we would have got so much more out of it if we had known what to expect.