This wonderful typical family run hotel gave us everything we could have wished for!

The friendly atmosphere was created by all members of the family who welcomed us into 'their home' & made us all feel very welcome. The dining experience was of a high standard & we felt that we experienced the true Tuscany.

The rooms were basic but comfortable & we soon 'negotiated' the wet room arrangements.

The view over the valley from our balcony was magnificient.

The small village of Gavinana was well suplied with small shops & an excellent museum. The church bells were 'silenced' from 11pm to 7am & did not cause us any problem at all!

A wonderful relaxing holiday destination for those wishing to experience the real Italy..

We stayed at the Franceschi for a week and had a lovely time. The hotel is run by the Franceschi family Piero, Dilva and their daughter Lucrezia all of whom did everything possible to make our stay pleasurable. The rooms were on the small side but nothing unusual for a small Italian albergo. The only unusual feature was that in some of the rooms (ours included) the shower area was a curtained off area which included the bidet and toilet - we kept having to remember to move the toilet roll onto the shelf when taking a shower to avoid ithe paper getting wet!
The food was typical Tuscan fare and it was expected that you chose your courses for the following evening when you had finished dinner that night. We had a suburb 'gala' dinner on our last evening which was extremely nice.
The village of Gavinana is extremely small and out of the way - the hotel is shown in the brochure as being close to the main square and next to the church and that it was. We were quite grateful that our room was at the back of the hotel so we weren't bothered by the church bells but others were rather closer than we were!
One evening the hotel laid on some entertainment which was a local singer who was joined by other members of the Franceschi family and the evening turned out to be a wonderfully friendly experience - certainly not to be missed!
Getting around the local area has to be done by local bus - just be careful that you find out what time you can get a bus back - some of the routes weren't that frequent - I must admit it did add to the charm of being in rural Tuscany!
On another evening we had a trip up to a local observatory - a minibus took us up a narrow winding lane through the forest to the observatory and we we were lucky enough to see a wild boar and a few roe deer on the short trip and the visit to the observatory was well worth it as we happened to pick a clear night and got a brilliant view of the stars and planets.