You can spend less money to stay in the heart of Tuscany but you will not get the experience of living like an Italian family for a week. Isabella, Luciano, Carlo, and everyone at this lovely agritourismo (farm stay vacation) take you into their family for a week of heaven in the beautiful Tuscan countryside just outside of Pienza and near the famous wine-producing town of Montepulciano.

Your week is as active as you want it to be: Isabella plans excursions to Sienna, the wineries, even the monastery that was featured in "The English Patient" and now serves fabulous gourmet dinners. She is an amazing tour guide and you will see ancient ruins under the town of Pienza. You will even learn how to make pici, a thick spaghetti.

You can sample Carlo's wine, Luciano's grappa, the farm cheeses and sausages, and homemade ricotta. There are several community dinners and you will find new friends from around the globe.

Or if you don't want to be so active you can lay in the hammock and let the gentle Tuscan breeze blow or play with the farm cats.

The whole family welcomes you and treats you are "family" for one wonderful week. Isabella even spent over an hour on the phone with our rental car company to help us resolve a billing error, saving us over $200. She is amazing and this is one of the most amazing places I have ever stayed. Well worth the money and we have many, many wonderful memories.

We were fortunate enough to spend a week at Cretaiole and we would highly recommend the experience. Beautiful villa, stunning panorama, many activities and the most gracious helpful owners. This was our dream vacation and we are sad we had to wake up!

I'm going to keep this review short because if I mention every aspect of how wonderful the farmhouse and Moricciani family are, it will take hours. I had imagined this part of my vacation would be wonderful, but when I arrived, I was nearly brought to tears because it felt like I was "home." I ADORED my Il Pollaio apartment and the whole place was so darn charming, you just cannot describe it. I was traveling alone but being with the other guests for my week stay was really wonderful also. I loved relaxing in the hammock with a gorgeous view of the hillsides, picking vegetables for dinner each night, and being able to do a wide variety of things close-by or just do nothing at all. Isabella and the Moricciani family have gone above and beyond what one would expect to make their guests comfortable and to cover every little detail you could possibly think of. Isabella also speaks wonderful English, is charming, funny, informative and is truly a fabulous hostess. Book your trip to Cretaiole!

We stopped by here whilst on a RV tour of Tuscany. Well worth it. The owners are great and they have four generations living at the farm. They were great with our kids and showed them all the animals. They even offered to let us park the RV at their place so we didnt have to fork out on a campsite. Well worth the visit.