Val d'Elsa Luxury Holidays

The property is clean and lovely. It is set in the middle of the Tuscan countryside which is beautiful beyond words. The room was quaint and comfortable and the bed was comfortable. There is nothing close to this place but vineyards and olive trees, so you will want a car. We saw a deer running along the side of the road. The nearest major city is Sienna, which is 15 minutes away and which you do not want to miss seeing. The hotel has a nice restaurant that opens for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but it is only open limited hours, not all day and not late night.

Once in a lifetime trip. The facilities, the staff, the rooms, the views, the activities were all exceptional.

I can’t fault the hotel in general, but honestly, it felt a bit soulless. We stayed at the sister hotel Relais Della Rovere earlier in the week and loved it. It felt warm, authentic and welcoming. The bar was by reception and constantly had people in it and all areas of the hotel were charming, whereas the Palazzo San Lorenzo, while impressive looking, lacked character inside despite being an old palace and in an area of architectural beauty/interest. As you are up the top of the old town, although there are some nice restaurants, they all keep strange opening hours/ days and on a Monday there is nowhere in walking distance to get lunch and limited options for dinner on a Sunday. That would have been fine if the hotel had food options, but they only do breakfast (which is very nice ) and then dinner for two hours in the evening. We were expecting Caffe San Lorenzo to do food, but we never saw it open and apparently they don’t do food despite it stating they do on the website. Maybe it’s off season for them, but the website doesn’t give opening times or say what days the restaurant/ caffe Lorenzo are closed. You get two small bottles of water in the fridge in the room daily, but there is nowhere to get any other bottled drinks throughout the day or around the pool unless you drive down to the main town to a supermarket. Whilst a decent hotel, we wanted somewhere to relax and not have to venture far to eat and drink after a busy week previously, this didn’t tick that box for us

Once in a lifetime trip. The facilities, the staff, the rooms, the views, the activities were all exceptional.