Alpaca Country House - PONTEDERA

I really enjoyed our 4 nights at the Alpacca farm. It was very peaceful and relaxing and we enjoyed sitting out on the decking watching the sun set, having dinner and drinks. Giovanna was very welcoming but unfortunately we do not speak Italian so communication was difficult. Giovanna gave us a lovely breakfast each morning and each morning different, croissants, salami prosciutto ham, juice, coffee. The added advantage is the pool, it is lovely to sit around and although the sun was very hot the water in the pool was very cold and we didn't venture in. The apartment was lovely and comfortable and clean. Some of the premises are a little tired and run down. The restaurant was not open while we were there which was a pity because we were looking forward to eating here on our last evening. We hired a car which is advisable and the roads to the farm are very narrow. The nearby village of montecastello is lovely and woth a visit, it also has a little supermarket but would be advisable to get some groceries in the supermarket in Pondeterra on the way. The Alpacca farm is very accessible from Pisa Airport.

During our last Trip to Tuscany we discovered this hidden Gem Alpaca. This country house is located in a great location with some facinating Panorama. The accomodation and the rooms were excellent , clean and tidy and the owners very helpful , professional and kind. During the evening we decided to have a local dinner cooked by the owner with some house wine , which I have to say was Delicious and the best we had during our Tuscany tour. This hidden Gem is highly recommended especially for a couple who would like to have a romantic break !

We spent several days in the Alpaca house which gave us a good base of operations for Tuscany. We tried the restaurant the first night. The food was very good and about the same price as other places, so if you're near I would recommend it.

We booked for a week and left after one night. Information provided when booking turned out to be misleading and the location itself appallingly dirty and run down. We booked apartment Nabucco (a three beds studio apartment on their separate location) via a large online booking platform. Many compliments to the person that has taken the pictures and written the advertisement copy on behalf of the owner. Unfortunately the real thing doesn’t live up to them. Of course it doesn’t help that the owner used a picture of a different pool on the booking website which is downright misleading. The studio apartment itself looked very nice in the pictures, but in real life it turned out to be extremely tired and run down with junk shop level of decoration and furniture and a dingy bathroom. On top of that the apartment was extremely dirty. Fungus in the fridge type of dirty. Other people’s food scraps on the stove, everything felt sticky and it smelled stale. An unhygienic hell hole. The location was not as panoramic as advertised. Basically this apartment is located in a not so pretty residential area and not the beautiful Tuscan landscape that you hope to see when on holiday in Tuscany and which was promised in the accommodation advertisement. To come back to the pool: this was not a typical pool, but more a large sack with water held up by some sort of system. The pool area seemed largely unfinished. Did the Wifi work? No Wifi didn’t work. The host doesn’t speak any other language than Italian and seemed not to be very motivated to bridge the language difference. Communication was virtually impossible. After providing them with pictures the booking platform has given us a full refund, which we highly appreciated. In order to warn people for a super disappointing experience I have attached multiple photos of what this apartment and its surroundings look like in real life. I hope it helps readers to avoid this horrible place and to have a nice and relaxing holiday in Tuscany. In my view that is what website such as TripAdvisor are for.