Albergo Le Macinaie

Hotel Le Macinaie, Monte Amiata, Castel del Piano, Tuscany. We stayed one night on Sunday, 16 April 2023, and paid about €70 through booking.com. I’d give it 3.7/5 and would recommend it for the fair prices, lovely staff, and beautiful snow up the mountain. The drive from Pisa to Castel del Piano took about five hours. Google Maps went offline as we drove up Monte Amiata, so we took an accidental detour, which turned out to be a pretty drive. There was quite a bit of snow higher up, but the roads were clear. The outside of the hotel was covered in scaffolding, and the place didn’t leave a strong impression otherwise. Our clean, somewhat dated room was on the second floor, up two flights of stairs. It was a little too warm for us, but met our needs, and had a twin bed as well as our own. Downstairs there was a lounge with lots of seating and a cozy fire. The staff were professional, courteous, and kind. Dinner at the hotel was good and surprisingly fairly priced, around €10 per meal with generous portions. I had sausages and bolognese sauce, and my husband had lasagna. There was banging on the wall just behind our table during dinner, presumably from construction. Only two other tables were occupied while we were there. Since places in Italy typically don’t open for dinner until 7:30, I’d found a grocery store open late on Sunday afternoon to tide me over. Breakfast was included and we chose from a paper menu in the dining room the evening before. Everything else was delicious, though I barely managed part of one of the five boiled eggs we ordered, along with sandwich meat and other things. They were very soft, which triggered my gag reflex, and my husband couldn’t eat them either. I know lots of people prefer soft-boiled eggs, though. On checkout morning we had a frantic passport scare. Lodging places abroad usually ask for passports and return them right away. My husband apparently handed ours to the man checking us in, but he couldn’t remember doing it. We searched everywhere and even contacted our previous B&B before asking reception. Thank goodness the hotel had them.

The spa was marvellous, with a jacuzzi, sauna, and sun shower, and the rooms were really nice and very clean. The hotel has a great view of the area, and we had a fantastic food experience. Every dish was prepared with care and brought out the flavor of local products. The staff were super kind, Enrico is a true gentleman, and his family are lovely. Being here felt like living in a fairy tale. We’ll definitely be back in autumn to see the foliage.

The forest around here is gorgeous, and Enrico, the hotel manager, made our motorcycle trip even better. He suggested some great routes and put together a custom scenic Google Maps route for our ride onward to Sienna. We had a fantastic stay. Highly recommend it, especially if you're on a bike.

They promised to refund us over 150 Euros, then ignored all our emails and never paid it back. We had even helped them identify a fake duplicate hotel on Google maps. The service felt dishonest and full of lies.