La Bartolomea Home&Suite

The location is a real plus, close to restaurants, bars, and shops, and the room itself was clean. But smoke from nearby restaurants or homes somehow made its way into the room, and there was nowhere to hang or put away clothes. We had to keep picking them up off the floor. This was the second hotel in Italy where we’d run into that. The bigger issue was how hard it was to reach anyone. Someone was supposed to be at the front desk, but help was remote. We arrived before check-in and were happy to leave our bags and come back later. No one answered the bell, so I called the number on the wall. A woman answered from what sounded like an event or luncheon, opened the door remotely, and we found nobody there until someone eventually showed up. The room wasn’t ready, so we left our bags and returned later. When the keys didn’t work, the same woman, apparently the person who had cleaned the room, came to help. The Wi-Fi password expired, and there was literally nobody at the hotel. I tried calling her again, but she didn’t answer until much later. The owner left the new password under our door while we were at dinner, along with a breakfast voucher. At 8:30 the next morning I asked by message what time checkout was, and didn’t hear back until 10:11. She said checkout was at 10, but that we could stay until 10:30, though we were already on our way out. The bar where breakfast was meant to be served was closed at 9. We got no instructions at check-in, not even a sheet with basic guidance. The place felt abandoned, with just us there. It was a pretty disappointing stay.

The historic town center is a great location, and breakfast is served at a nearby bar, with a typical Italian offering. Our room was very clean and nicely designed, with an extremely comfortable bed. It was excellent, really at an international five-star level.

The room was clean and tastefully decorated, just as it looks online, and the rooftop is a pretty space. But there were no cushions on the furniture, so sitting up there was uncomfortable. Toilet paper and other room supplies weren’t replenished either, and we had to go into town to find somewhere to buy our own. We wouldn’t recommend La Bartolomea Home & Suite based on this stay. We had expected the hospitality and help that the website says guests can get, including advice on places to visit and things to do in Pitigliano. After traveling for about 36 hours, we arrived to find nobody answering at the inn. A kind woman from a local store had the owner’s personal number and called him. He returned her call about 20 minutes later, then came to collect us another 20 minutes after that and drive us to the accommodation. He’s about 20 years younger than us, but didn’t offer to carry our bags up the stairs. We’d been looking forward to our time in Pitigliano and to getting help arranging tours and using the other advertised services. Instead, there was no hospitality, and no staff on site or even close by if we needed anything. A recent storm had knocked out the internet, so we couldn’t look up things to do ourselves. Nobody gave us a way to contact staff or updates about the Wi-Fi repair. We couldn’t call on WhatsApp without Wi-Fi, though luckily we didn’t have any serious problems.

We accidentally booked this hotel, but they handled the cancellation and refund very well. Their help saved us from having to fight with hotels.com, which had made things very difficult.