Castello di Lispida

A lovely spot for a quiet break. We enjoyed the beautiful view, the very clean pool and especially the hot bath with natural volcanic water. It was a wonderfully calm and relaxing stay.

We spent three luxurious nights here as a family of six adults, staying in GLI ULIVI. It had three good bedrooms, each with its own bathroom. We made good use of the swimming pool with massages and the thermal bath in the garden. This is countryside, so I’d definitely recommend having a rental car. We took day trips to Venice and the little village of Arqua Petrorca, and also visited Padova and Verona. Mikaela and Anna were easy to reach on WhatsApp, and we had one phone call to get help using the air conditioning and arrange where to leave the key. We’d happily recommend the place. Best wishes, Paula from Finland.

We found another place after less than an hour here. We’re now dealing with MasterCard because the owners have stopped responding, even though Italian family members called them to explain the problems. We were assigned Il Costello, which was a set of rooms with little privacy rather than an apartment. To reach the kitchen and dining room, you had to leave the apartment, go into the shared stairwell, turn left and then right. That door had no lock. The kitchen area had no usable wall sockets, and the dishwasher still held the previous guests’ dirty dishes. Someone suggested putting a chair in the doorway and resting the kettle on it, but the cord was too short. Maybe it could have worked with the Nespresso machine, but we didn’t try before leaving. The terrace behind the kitchen was disappointing, with no view, little sun and what looked like the building’s AC unit. In the living room, the seats were mostly uncomfortable and the room was dusty, though the rocking chair was fine. There was damage to the walls, floor and plaster. Being in the countryside, it seemed like an easy place for mice to get in and out. The carpet had swastikas on it. There was at least one working socket low down near the floor where a kettle could be used, shown in our photo. We walked through the living room to the twin room. Its two small beds had mattresses, unlike the other bed. The dollhouse-sized beds were very short. An adult over 160 cm or 75 kg would probably struggle to sleep comfortably, and our photos show that the six-foot-tall person’s head and feet reached the ends of the frame. The next room’s so-called double bed was two chaise lounges pushed together. It felt soft and dusty, so we checked underneath and found not a mattress but a badly cut, chipped foam pad with no mattress protector. The area below was very dirty and dusty, and I worried it could be from previous guests’ skin cells and dust mites. The air conditioning in this room didn’t work, which made it impossible for us to sleep there in summer. We were told it couldn’t be fixed. The shutters had been closed all day, but the room was still very hot. We didn’t use the bathrooms, so can’t say anything about water pressure. The second shower room, reached through a corridor with a window into the communal areas, looked like a badly repaired hostel bathroom. The owner’s representative said she would have moved us to another apartment, but none were available. This place wasn’t suitable for four adults and lacked security and privacy. The broken AC would have made sleeping unbearable, even if the bed had been proper. We still had a lovely holiday, just somewhere else. Our relative from nearby Monselice called after nobody got in touch with us. Our Italian isn’t good, but he’s local, so we thought he could explain that the accommodation wasn’t as advertised, wasn’t really an apartment and had no working bedroom AC. They ignored him too.

I spent two nights here with my wife and our two kids. The garden and spa were fantastic, and everything had a real classic feel. I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys the Italian countryside.