Hotels in Tusany and Venice
 

I am traveling to Italy early Septemeber and have done a considerable amount of research on places to stay. I have searched this forum for information on the hotels we are considering, but have found very few reviews from people who have actually stayed at these places. Our choices are:

Tuscany - Locanda Dell'Amorosa
Borgo San Felice
Villa San Michele
(we are having a lot of trouble deciding between these, thinking about 2 nights either Amorosa or San Felice and 2 nights San Michele)

Venice - Hotel Colombina
(does anyone have first hand experience staying here?)

Any info., room recommendations, pros/cons about any of these places would be gratly appreciated.

I have stayed at Amorosa, it is rather snooty cuz they have the name. It is always better to stay at the underdogs, they have better prices and don't have swarms of americans. There is a place in Chiusi, south of Amorosa, Villa il Patriarca. It is 4 star but since they are new, they have good prices for Tuscany. the secret is book directly, instead of going thru an agency or website. they all should have lower rates they offer directly to the public. from there, you can do Montepulciano, 20 min., pienza, montalcino, orvieto, cortona. It is 50 min outside of Siena, Siena can be rather hectic.

Lorri

I stayed at Amorosa for 4 nights in June and absolutely loved it! I did not find them snooty in the least - in fact everyone was extremely nice and helpful. The rooms are lovely, large, clean and comfortable and the grounds are beautiful. We ate at the restaurant one night and the food was delicious. We did day trips to Pienza, Montalcino, Montepulciano and Perugia visitng other smaller towns on the way. I would highly recommend it!

I would also be interested in pros/cons for the Locanda Dell'Amorosa. I am staying there for 3 nights in early October for the first time. My only concern is that the hotel is not near the center of town. As far as I understand, you can't go to a restaurant or a local bar and then walk home afterwards. You need to drive back to the hotel. Comments?

I stayed at the Colombuna in Venice in 8/02 (you can see my review in the hotel review section of this website). Unlike others on this site, I didn't find it "wonderful." The location was great, but it was otherwise fairly forgetable. I think you could do better elsewhere. It was good -- just not particularly special.

We stayed two nights at Locanda back in June. It is gorgeous and accomodations and service are impeccable and not too stuffy. True that it is isolated on a hilltop (hence part of the beauty of it) and you won't walk to the village, but that is true of many places. I strongly recommend it. Best accomodations we had during a 3-week stay all over Italy