Life Outside the Inbox

If your intention is to enjoy the rolling hills of Tuscany and relax in wine country, Fattoria Degli Usignoli offers amazing views of the Reggello region and may be ideal for you. It offers a rustic Italian experience with good sized rooms and down the road you can catch amazing sunsets. But my personal experience here was as disappointing as Groupon Getaway’s customer service. Groupon Getaway advertised this package as a centralized location and a close distance to Florence.

There’s a few things about this place you need to know about.

1. From the base of the region, you need to drive a good 20 minutes to access to the hotel (hence the amazing view but the inconvenience for day trips). You drive on a tight, windy, one-way road with locals going at full speed.
2. Don’t take hot water for granted. 10 minutes into the shower, the water is cold as ice. Not sure why and after you shower, you dry yourself off with a towel that sheds so you get white lint all over you. Proceed to blow dry your hair with a tool from the 70’s that hardly works.
3. Inconsistent wifi service. I’m not sure if it’s the room I’m in, but wifi service is weak. I’m typing this review on a word doc in hopes to access my website in the next few…hours.
4. There is no air conditioning – yes there’s an air conditioner in our room but it seems the front desk staff has been taught to not tell the truth. First day we called and we were told there was technical issues and the ac would be turned on tomorrow (this should be a known fact to staff if this was true). Next day and the day after we ask the front desk staff and we were told that all we have to do is ask for the ac to be turned on and yet for the duration of our stay, there was no ac. I am not accusing them of lying, but reading past reviews on trip advisor, it seems their ac has been broken for months.
5. In the bedroom, the fan in the room sounds like its about to fall off when you turn it on and the beds are two stiff single beds put together – think thin sofa bed with terrible springs.
6. Front desk staff is not always the friendliest. On our first night we asked about restaurants in the area and he was offended we did not want to go to their restaurant. He said, “the other pizza place is okay” and offered no other direction.
7. They offer a decent breakfast to start but as the days went on, food began disappearing and not replaced. The first day they offered, pickles, olives and pepers, the next day the pickles were gone and the day after, none of them were offered. Breakfast also starts at 8 am so don’t expect to get into the city until 11 am.

Please also keep in mind that this is a “country residence hotel” it only offers you two bars of soap that will be sure to dry out your skin. Thank god I read previous reviews and brought my own toiletries.