Hotel Panoramic - Montepulciano, Italy 

Plus points: - lovely surroundings - great pool - quiet location, amazing view - clean hotel - good breakfast Minus points - weird staff - hotel "wakes" up early - cleaning staff very eager to start early - no airco in the rooms, but you can ask for a fan

Woe betide anyone that gets their own taxi to the hotel. The first encounter with anyone at the hotel was not "Hello" or even "Welcome to vthe Panoramic". It was, "Why have you taken your own taxi here? I do the transfers here. I'll transer you to Montepulciano for 5 Euro tonight." just like that, we were chastised in reception like a pair of naughty kids! We checked in, went up to our room (still angry from our welcome) and despite the breathtaking views of the Tuscan hills from the balcony, we decided against staying the full 3 nights and amended our booking to just one. This was just based on the awful reception and overwhelming feeling we were putting people out just by being there. The decor is what we decided was 1970's Eastern European chic. The room we had was huge, in fact so big they put a metal, prison style bunk bed in there too, for good measure. We took our host up on his 5 Euro ride into Montepulciano (takes about 10 mins although he cunningly failed to mention that there's a regular bus for next to nothing) and as he deposited us he warned us to be ready to be collected at 6:45 because he has to be at work for 7pm. As it was already 5pm we had to argue the toss for some time and stand firm that we wanted to dine in Montepulciano itself until he gave in and huffily conceeded that we'd have to struggle to get a taxi back for ourselves. The town itself is amazing, beautiful, breathtaking. There's wine and cheese to be sampled for free at almost ever shop and there's beautiful side streets and glimpses of the faraway rows of Cypress trees on the surrounding hills. Wear stout shoes because the streets have a wicked incline at places, but do make the effort to find the main piazza and light a candle in it's church. We got a taxi back to the hotel later on (the number was written on a bin outside the tourist info office) and was quizzed about our evening out upon our return. We slept soundly (the silence at night is lovely) and the bathroom was clean, fresh and the shower enjoyable. To be honest, given the chance again, I would've liked to have stayed in Montepulciano itself. The hotel felt too isolated, and even though the decor style was almost comical, the whole hotel was thoroughly clean and fresh.