I traveled to Villa Le Maschere with a friend for Easter. The hotel is in Barberino di Mugello, which is not such an exciting place to be, unless you want to go to the outlet which is a 3 minute drive from the hotel. Honestly though, if you are planning a relaxing weekend or a couple of days of break this is the best place to do so. The SPA is simply delightful (there is a mini indoor pool and a nice outdoor pool). Unfortunately it was raining while we were there but we had an amazing time anyway. The rooms are amazing, we had a room in the modern part of the building, the bathroom was incredibly spacious and the shower was huge.
We only at in the hotel once since it seemed pretty empty and somewhat sad, but the morning breakfast made up for this (it was INCREDIBLE). If you are planning on going for morning runs you have the entire garden area and you can even wonder off into the tuscan hills.
Now for the slightly upsetting part, the staff is not as incredibly nice as they should be. We arrived at 4pm and had to wait an hour before going up to the room since it was being cleaned (seemed strange since the hotel is enormous and we saw about 15 people during the entire weekend). Also the friendliness when we asked for places to eat around the area was sort of missing.
But, even though nothing is perfect, Villa Le Maschere comes very close to perfection.

Car launch centered on Florence overnighted at Villa Le Maschere, which has a curious edifice reminiscent of a decorated barn. Extremely poor Internet connection meant unable to upload to YouTube and each email took several minute to process. Oddball room had a rickety desk and a big chair but no legroom underneath, so forced to use an armchair and coffee table to work. Drinks on the terrace was understaffed. The meal (stuffed Guinea fowl) was okay, but nothing special. Breakfast was served in some rooms in the labyrinthine rabbit warren of basement that proved difficult to find and required the skills of a pot-holer to emerge from. On this occasion the place promised more than it actually delivered.

Stayed here as part of a week long trip in Italy and thought it would be the highlight of our stay. Unfortunately this was not the case!

Straight away I thought the hotel felt cold and pretentious and was trying to be something it is not. The standard rooms are terrible for the money. Our room was small, had no view and there weren't even basic extras such as complimentary water or a turn down service.

Service was incredibly poor for a supposed 5 star hotel. As per an earlier review we were ignored at breakfast and had to get up and ask for drinks etc. On checkout no one even asked if we had a good stay, which frankly we did not.

In summary this hotel needs to get new management and staff and lower prices, as at the minute it is truly awful value for money. Hopefully it could then be worthy of the beautiful building it occupies.

We stayed 8 nights and had an uograde to a Junior Suite. This is a first class hotel and the attention of the staff could not be faulted. Breakfast buffet is varied and plentiful. The quality and presentation of dinner was excellent - although the menu is extensive, we would have liked to see some changes in the menu over a period of 8 days.Dining on the terrace on a warm Tuscany evening is magic! The courtesy shuttle to Florence is a bonus. A rental car would be advantageous rather than the very pricey taxis.