Fattoria Pratale

There’s plenty of outdoor space, two pools, and a lovely Tuscan landscape view. Still, we strongly recommend against staying here, and we won’t return. We paid for a “one-bedroom apartment” shown in the booking, but were given a different apartment. When we raised this, the housekeeper called the owner, who said we could have our money back and leave. The housekeeper also admitted that the owner uses one set of Booking.com photos to make the less attractive apartments look better. It seemed to us that advance payment was requested so guests would feel they had to stay, instead of being made to feel welcome. We saw the same thing happen to two other guests during our stay. The listing also promised a bottle of wine at check-in, but there wasn’t one. The housekeeper was unwelcoming, complained about how hard her job was, and made us feel like we were bothering her. She got overwhelmed quickly and spoke very rudely, including insulting some guests in Italian.

The two pools were clean, with plenty of deck chairs, and Andrea was always available if we needed anything. The apartments are lovely, set in an old Tuscan farm building. Great views over the Chianti fields too. Highly recommended.

The setting is beautiful, with a gorgeous view. We appreciated the pools, parking, and kitchen, and had a lovely vacation, but the information about the rooms was misleading. Our room wasn’t set up for six people: there were only four chairs at the table, two sunbeds by the pool, and one bed in the kitchen that had to be folded away each morning so we could get through. There was no light in the rooms. WiFi was only available sometimes by the pool, and the signal was weak.

The squeaky spring beds really need replacing. Aside from that, we had a lovely manager who was a pleasure to deal with. We saw a hot air balloon go up one morning, and she arranged for us to go up with the same company the next morning. Brilliant! I loved exploring the walks and wildlife nearby. The villa had lots of birdlife and glorious scenery, and it was a good base for driving out to see beautiful places each day.