Podere Spedalone

Located in the scenic Val d'Orcia region, Podere Spedalone provides spacious, rustic rooms with impeccable cleanliness. Guests appreciate the warm, family-like atmosphere and exceptional service. The breakfast is highly praised.

We’ve been travelling around Tuscany for the last week and have stopped off at several places, and sadly we felt that while Podere Spedalone was fine it did not match our other stays in terms of satisfaction and value for money. To start with the positives the room was characterful, and clean, with a bright modern bathroom. The views and surroundings were fantastic, and we were very taken with the 3 indolent dogs which were in evidence most of the time. They were lovely, liking being fussed but not demanding attention. Coffee was great and the breakfast varied and plentiful The cons were that the room was much smaller than others we had stayed in, but that wasn’t too much of an issue. For us the real let down was the evening meal. We booked for the communal meal as it had been highly recommended by other reviewers. We checked the menu on arrival as it was a set meal to ensure we happy with it and went ahead as planned. The meal started well with a lovely convivial reception in the garden, with appetitifs and Prosecco. The first course was lasagne as promised which was fine but then the main course arrived and rather than beef it was a game stew. Neither of us like game, and while my husband ate a (very little) of his. I tasted it and immediately realised I couldn’t eat it. The main course was now reduced to half a carrot and two pieces of celery: not a meal that reflects the price. To make it worse, we were not informed the menu had changed, and when my plate was cleared no effort was made to enquire if I was satisfied given that I hadn’t eaten any of the meat. When I told the receptionist I was unhappy the response was merely that he would check with/inform the kitchen and then charged me full price. I suspect that it was possible he wasn’t entirely clear about my complaint and as it is my issue that I can’t speak Italian. I would have liked to see some redress. Al in all, an ok hotel but the food certainly didn’t live up to expectations for the price