Trip Report: Montepulciano Rome
Oct 29th, 2004, 11:16 AM
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Trip Report: Montepulciano Rome
I've benefited a great deal from others' posts, so I wanted to reciprocate with this trip report...
Family of 5 (2 adults and 3 kids age 11, 10 and 1 year) went to Italy in October 2004 for 2 weeks. We booked 6 nights first in Montepulciano directly online with the Sant'Antonio followed by 6 nights in San Pietro Rome through sleepinitaly.com. Both bookings were pretty simple after I narrowed down the specific apartments and did some haggling on dates and price (yes they will haggle a bit, but probably because we went in low season). Final night we stayed at the airport Marriott Courtyard Rome-Fiumicino for an early flight out.
Montepulciano:
We flew into Milan and drove a Hertz car down 4 hours - not ideal, but used airline miles so we had little choice. Drive was okay, we stopped at the Autogrill for lunch, kinda expensive I thought. We got all the CDW coverage on the car which I highly recommend.
Arrived in Montepulciano in the afternoon and met the people at the Sant'Antonio who showed us the Casa Francheschi apartment. The grounds of the Sant'Antonio are gorgeous - very well groomed with olive trees, a pear tree and a nice pebble driveway into the vineyard which makes for a nice walk. Plenty of places to hang around outside and a nice inground pool though it was too cold in Oct. My wife and kids were very happy with the apartment. It's a good size for 4/5 people. During the entire week, we never felt like we were cramped for space. Every apartment has a separate entrance with outside lock and the property itself has electronic gates so we felt very safe. The apartment has a full kitchen, fireplace in the kitchen, dining area, etc and bathroom with 2 sinks. The only negative comments I would make is that the design of the apartment doesn't promote circulation so it got damp and musty - but that's really digging for bad points.
The area is a good vantage point for exploring nearby towns - we went to Siena (1.5 hrs), Montalcino (20 min) and Montepulciano proper (10 min) so we had lots to see. There are good restaurants nearby, but the best food we found was a local Pizzeria on the road to the Sant'Antonio from town which had delicious pizzas for 4-5 Euros. "Obelix" I think it was called.
Siena was an easy drive and I took the recommendation to park on the outskirts of Campo Parking and walk into town. It was probably 5 Euros for our whole time there. It's a great city if you have little kids who can run around the Piazza Campo and go up the tower. We had very good pesto in a restaurant off the Piazza; "Nelly" I think it was.
Rome:
We read a bunch of horror stories on Fodors about driving into Rome. We bought a very detailed map, checked out several routes going into the city from the A1 Firenze and still got a bit lost, but we made it about 40 minutes off schedule. We dropped the car off at Hertz Gregorio VII which is very close to the Vatican - no probs there.
We rented the Fornaci apartment from sleepinitaly.com. It's a train-type apartment where there's a long hallway with rooms, kitchen etc branching off of it. We were pretty happy with it - clean, quiet one-way street right next to an elementary school, new appliances, TV in each br and 2 nice sized bathrooms. Bedrooms are actually quite big and the ceilings must be 13+ ft. The only negatives I can think of: it's on the 3rd floor with no lift, one bath shower head was kinda busted, and we had to wait for 1 hr to get the key (although we were late from getting lost - owner just didn't wait around).
The Fornaci is 2 blocks from the Vatican which was great for us. We could get out to the Sistene Chapel or St Peters within 5 minutes. There's an underground passage the avoids the main street, too, so we didn't even need to walk across any major street to hit the Piazza San Pietro. Most of what we needed was within a 5-10 minute walk (supermarket, ATMs, internet cafe, little shops for bread, coffee, bars etc). I had heard that Rome was noisy, late night could be unwelcome for women walking alone, etc. We didn't have any concerns about safety after a few days - I even let the kids go downstairs alone to Schettino's cafe nearby to buy some candy. we went to Schettino's every morning for espresso - it was less than a Euro. In all we had a great time there - we would rent it again I think.
Two comments on food I will make is that most of the time, we found the more inexpensive places (6-9 Euros pp) that the locals were frequenting were MUCH better than more expensive restaurants (25+ Euros pp). The other comment is that the restaurants in that area wouldn't seat us for just dessert and drinks - they expected you to order food. Just odd, I thought.
Courtyard:
This is a new hotel I think - the beds are very nice and the lobby looks new. They were actually doing construction while we were lunching there! The restaurant in the hotel is nothing to brag about. We took the shuttle and ate at the airport for dinner. The breakfast was included for us so we ate prior to heading to the airport (10 min away) for the 9:30 flight.
One travel note, we had originally booked car service to take us from Rome to the Courtyard but found a better deal through a local shop owner. So ask around, we got to the airport (5 people with 5 large suitcases) for 40 Euros around midday.
Hope this helps you out if you are going to try either place out.
Family of 5 (2 adults and 3 kids age 11, 10 and 1 year) went to Italy in October 2004 for 2 weeks. We booked 6 nights first in Montepulciano directly online with the Sant'Antonio followed by 6 nights in San Pietro Rome through sleepinitaly.com. Both bookings were pretty simple after I narrowed down the specific apartments and did some haggling on dates and price (yes they will haggle a bit, but probably because we went in low season). Final night we stayed at the airport Marriott Courtyard Rome-Fiumicino for an early flight out.
Montepulciano:
We flew into Milan and drove a Hertz car down 4 hours - not ideal, but used airline miles so we had little choice. Drive was okay, we stopped at the Autogrill for lunch, kinda expensive I thought. We got all the CDW coverage on the car which I highly recommend.
Arrived in Montepulciano in the afternoon and met the people at the Sant'Antonio who showed us the Casa Francheschi apartment. The grounds of the Sant'Antonio are gorgeous - very well groomed with olive trees, a pear tree and a nice pebble driveway into the vineyard which makes for a nice walk. Plenty of places to hang around outside and a nice inground pool though it was too cold in Oct. My wife and kids were very happy with the apartment. It's a good size for 4/5 people. During the entire week, we never felt like we were cramped for space. Every apartment has a separate entrance with outside lock and the property itself has electronic gates so we felt very safe. The apartment has a full kitchen, fireplace in the kitchen, dining area, etc and bathroom with 2 sinks. The only negative comments I would make is that the design of the apartment doesn't promote circulation so it got damp and musty - but that's really digging for bad points.
The area is a good vantage point for exploring nearby towns - we went to Siena (1.5 hrs), Montalcino (20 min) and Montepulciano proper (10 min) so we had lots to see. There are good restaurants nearby, but the best food we found was a local Pizzeria on the road to the Sant'Antonio from town which had delicious pizzas for 4-5 Euros. "Obelix" I think it was called.
Siena was an easy drive and I took the recommendation to park on the outskirts of Campo Parking and walk into town. It was probably 5 Euros for our whole time there. It's a great city if you have little kids who can run around the Piazza Campo and go up the tower. We had very good pesto in a restaurant off the Piazza; "Nelly" I think it was.
Rome:
We read a bunch of horror stories on Fodors about driving into Rome. We bought a very detailed map, checked out several routes going into the city from the A1 Firenze and still got a bit lost, but we made it about 40 minutes off schedule. We dropped the car off at Hertz Gregorio VII which is very close to the Vatican - no probs there.
We rented the Fornaci apartment from sleepinitaly.com. It's a train-type apartment where there's a long hallway with rooms, kitchen etc branching off of it. We were pretty happy with it - clean, quiet one-way street right next to an elementary school, new appliances, TV in each br and 2 nice sized bathrooms. Bedrooms are actually quite big and the ceilings must be 13+ ft. The only negatives I can think of: it's on the 3rd floor with no lift, one bath shower head was kinda busted, and we had to wait for 1 hr to get the key (although we were late from getting lost - owner just didn't wait around).
The Fornaci is 2 blocks from the Vatican which was great for us. We could get out to the Sistene Chapel or St Peters within 5 minutes. There's an underground passage the avoids the main street, too, so we didn't even need to walk across any major street to hit the Piazza San Pietro. Most of what we needed was within a 5-10 minute walk (supermarket, ATMs, internet cafe, little shops for bread, coffee, bars etc). I had heard that Rome was noisy, late night could be unwelcome for women walking alone, etc. We didn't have any concerns about safety after a few days - I even let the kids go downstairs alone to Schettino's cafe nearby to buy some candy. we went to Schettino's every morning for espresso - it was less than a Euro. In all we had a great time there - we would rent it again I think.
Two comments on food I will make is that most of the time, we found the more inexpensive places (6-9 Euros pp) that the locals were frequenting were MUCH better than more expensive restaurants (25+ Euros pp). The other comment is that the restaurants in that area wouldn't seat us for just dessert and drinks - they expected you to order food. Just odd, I thought.
Courtyard:
This is a new hotel I think - the beds are very nice and the lobby looks new. They were actually doing construction while we were lunching there! The restaurant in the hotel is nothing to brag about. We took the shuttle and ate at the airport for dinner. The breakfast was included for us so we ate prior to heading to the airport (10 min away) for the 9:30 flight.
One travel note, we had originally booked car service to take us from Rome to the Courtyard but found a better deal through a local shop owner. So ask around, we got to the airport (5 people with 5 large suitcases) for 40 Euros around midday.
Hope this helps you out if you are going to try either place out.
Nov 8th, 2004, 09:05 AM
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There were a few 2-bedroom apartments that sleep 4 with full kitchen ran for 100 Euros per night in the southern Tuscany area. Within rome itself you should be able to find the same outside of the "core" city hotspots like Piazza Navona, Spanish Steps etc for 150 Euros per night. Remember that this was nearly off season, though.
Nov 8th, 2004, 12:09 PM
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Thanks for the report. We have a trip planned for July 2005, with our 2 boys 10 and 15. It is always reassuring to read positive comments from families who have been to the same places. How did your kids handle the Vatican/ ST. Peters excursion. Did you do it yourselves. I am reluctant to take a formal tour as I fear the 10yr. old will get bored after the first hour. Our aim is to see the Sistine Chapel.
Nov 9th, 2004, 12:44 PM
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We did not do a formal tour of St Peters or the vatican, since we typically like to wander around ourselves. There were enough large groups with narrated tours nearby that if we wanted to listen in we could (and did). We did rent the audio commentary of the vatican museum which my boys found interesting as we went to the Sistine Chapel. The boys didn't find the church as interesting as the museum. We probably spent 1 hr in St Peters and 2-3 in the vatican. They enjoyed it, but once was enough for them.
One BIG recommendation is to either arrive early (before 9:30) or late in the afternoon. I thought the lines were long (10 min wait to vatican museum) on the day we went - which was the day the subways and buses were on strike. Lucky us! The next day they went all the way back to the Piazza San Pietro after the buses starting working again.
One BIG recommendation is to either arrive early (before 9:30) or late in the afternoon. I thought the lines were long (10 min wait to vatican museum) on the day we went - which was the day the subways and buses were on strike. Lucky us! The next day they went all the way back to the Piazza San Pietro after the buses starting working again.
Nov 27th, 2004, 07:40 PM
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Thanks for the report, pwpark. Did Sant Antonio have any play areas for the children? We are considering this property for our trip next summer and we will have our (then) 4 1/2 y.o. & 2 y.o. Also, did your kids have any favorite places or activities in S. Tuscany?
Jan 20th, 2006, 02:07 AM
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We have booked Fornaci through SleepinItaly after requesting and missing out on another apartment for 3 couples,(found Guilia very helpful - after missing out on original request, she recommended Fornaci) in May, and would be grateful for your recommendations on where to find the good budget eating places nearby which you mentioned, food markets other than supermarkets, and if you can recall if there are any cark parks nearby. We have hired a people-mover on a Sunday, to do a trip to Pompeii, and must park overnight before returning it to the car hire place at Termini on the Monday morning. Not sure of volume of traffic to expect at 7am Monday morning either.
SleepinItaly also have supplied the phone number of the owner in case we are delayed in arriving. Arriving at Ciampino airport, and intended to book a shuttle to take us to Fornaci. Any suggestions on the local transport which gave you a better deal to the airport?
Also, would suggest that if anyone is looking at apartments in Rome, that they check several websites for the same apartment. We found that rates often varied for the same place on different websites.
And has anyone used rent.it for car hire? This was the cheapest site for the people-mover but not as well known as the next best deal on Europcar. The rest were much more expensive.
SleepinItaly also have supplied the phone number of the owner in case we are delayed in arriving. Arriving at Ciampino airport, and intended to book a shuttle to take us to Fornaci. Any suggestions on the local transport which gave you a better deal to the airport?
Also, would suggest that if anyone is looking at apartments in Rome, that they check several websites for the same apartment. We found that rates often varied for the same place on different websites.
And has anyone used rent.it for car hire? This was the cheapest site for the people-mover but not as well known as the next best deal on Europcar. The rest were much more expensive.
Jun 22nd, 2006, 12:04 PM
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I just saw this posting. I actually cant remember any of the names of the restaurants nearby, but they were all on the main street that leads from the via della fornaci to the Vatican, just go the other direction away from the Piazza San Pietro once you hit the street.
Peter
Peter
