Borgo San Benedetto

My husband and I stayed here 17 years ago and it was a dream of mine to return with our two daughters. I planned a large birthday gathering in part because of my love of the area and Casa Masi the best restaurant in Tuscany. My extended family and I rented the large farmhouse and I had two guests who were in other apartments. The surroundings are beautiful without question. The bedrooms are large with comfortable furnishings and the kitchen has everything you may need if you chose to cook there which we did for breakfasts and lunches. It is a lovely location to visit nearby towns and makes a perfect home base. You also can have dinners at Casa Masi which is more than worth it. My only disappointment was with communication. I emailed (I live in the US) with Marta who was my point person, for over a year to plan this birthday celebration. The communications were sometimes lost and it took some persistence of emailing several times, but then Marta was very helpful in helping me plan my stay, my guests stay, and my birthday dinner. This was a huge event and expense for me and I felt like there was no appreciation on Marta's end for our business. My disappointment is truly in the lack of appreciation and her almost rudeness when we arrived. We arrived via a bus (recommended by her) late at night and the driver didn't know where to park. He was so kind and tracked down the entrance where Marta was and I was so happy to be there. She was quite curt, gave us our key and said to bring our passports to the office in the morning. The next morning my husband and I walked around thinking we had found the office when I guess it was the bed and breakfast room and Marta looked at us and rudely explained we were to go to the office. We arrived in the dark, with no map of the grounds and hadn't been there for 17 years. There is no clear signage so how were we supposed to know where to go? We finally found the office and from that moment it seemed we were an inconvenience to her. She made a point of asking us to pay and do the checkout on Thursday rather than Saturday as she had several other big groups coming in and would be busy. I asked about dinner reservations and she chastised me telling me I should absolutely have them and all I could think of why would't she have helped me with that over the 25 emails we exchanged. It all left me feeling so disappointed after telling my daughters, family, and friends how magical and amazing this place would be. I seriously cannot believe given the huge event and business I provided that there wasn't some customer appreciation. The silver lining without a doubt is Casa Masi where Mrs Masi was everything Marta wasn't. Mrs Masi is a true gem and I thank her so much for her kindness.