Buonamico Wine Resort

We spent about ten days at the resort, using it as a base to explore the Montecarlo area, and got plenty of time to relax too. Our room overlooked the garden, with a very comfortable bed and a modern, spacious bathroom. Breakfast was brought to the room, Italian-style, with great coffee and pastries. We liked having room service so we could take our mornings slowly. The hotel staff were very friendly, and we enjoyed dinner at the nearby Syrah restaurant when it was open. Since we visited in May and the resort wasn’t fully booked, the restaurant was closed Monday through Wednesday, which made sense. We also took a winery tour with a tasting. The estate is beautiful, with contemporary art throughout, and it’s one of the region’s best wineries. The staff were very friendly. The spumante, whites and reds were all high quality, especially the Cercatoja. We’d love to come back soon.

The dinner at Buonamico was awful. We waited almost 45 minutes before anyone acknowledged us, and they didn’t even bring water. After we ordered a bottle of wine, the server opened it and left it on the table. The ravioli, eggplant parm and risotto all arrived cold. I told the manager, who tried to convince me I couldn’t tell hot from cold. It got heated, and our group of six left the table. We’ve never left food behind after making a complaint before. Usually service improves when you speak up, but that didn’t happen here. They insisted that wanting fresh, hot food at a restaurant was asking too much, then tried to charge us for the meal at checkout the next morning. What a scam. And everyone, please read their reply to us. After serving cold food, they’re now saying we’re uneducated and arrogant. If replying to me is such a waste of time, why respond at all? They’ve doubled down on the poor service.

I really wanted this place to work out. It looked modern and new, and the setting seemed like a dream, but my wife and I had a terrible last night in Tuscany and wish we’d booked somewhere else. The first room was beautiful and comfortable, with a large, well-stocked bathroom and a very nice shower. But a sulfur or rotten egg smell started coming through the AC vents. To me, it seemed obviously like a natural gas leak. We were first told everything was safe, then offered another room, which we accepted. The second room was smaller, and the shower looked a little dirty or perhaps slightly damaged, though that wasn’t a major issue. The AC was blowing hot air and couldn’t be switched on. When we complained, staff said they’d forgotten to enable it in that room and turned it on remotely. That didn’t fix it. Cold air came and went, and the room never cooled below 24.8 C. We were fed up, so we stopped reporting the AC problem and slept in the hot room with the sliding glass door open. By then the front desk wasn’t staffed, so another complaint didn’t seem possible. We’d also been locked out when we arrived at 13:45 because the front doors stayed shut until the 15:00 check-in time. I understand the stated hours, but most hotels or B&Bs offer some flexibility, and there didn’t seem to be staff available to help.

The staff were friendly and did try to meet our requests, and dinner at the resort’s Syrah restaurant was mostly delicious. The spaghetti with mussels was full of sand, though. I complained, and the chef brought us another dish. We also liked the wine we had with dinner. It came from the Buonamico winery, the same winery as the bottles in our room, but these wines tasted very different and were very good. The room, reception and the hotel’s architecture made a strong first impression. The room was spacious, with a big shower, nice decor and a minibar stocked with several kinds of wine. The minibar wines weren’t good, and we were told the good ones were only available in the restaurant. Service around the resort was another matter. There was no service available during the day, and no one seemed to be around. Breakfast was disappointing, with bread and croissants that seemed to be the bake-in-the-oven kind. We know breakfast had to be ordered ahead, but even a small lunch or tea had to be requested the day before. They said this was because of Covid19, but it felt like it was much easier for the staff. The hotel presents itself as high quality, and the rooms and furnishings fit that impression, but the service didn’t. For the price, the resort wasn’t good value.