Plazzo Viviani wins the award for rubbish website hands down. It's
clearly cost someone a lot of money and been designed by some company more
interested in showing off their skills than creating a clear, easy to use site
that shows you what there is.Basically, on the top of a hill there is a fort / castle, called Montegridolfo. Within this fort there are a number of shops and restaurants... and a hotel. The hotel is set within one end of the fort and this has 10 rooms. They also sell other rooms in a little 'hamlet' of a hotel they've made outside the walls. We stayed in one of the rooms in the fort itself.
Firstly, trying to work out how you get in was interesting as there is one
entrance that seems barely wide enough to get a car through -
but yes, you have
to take your car through (see pic on right)! Driving through what appears to be a museum you arrive
at a door, which is the hotel entrance. After checking in & depositing your bags
you then drive back out through the tiny arch, round the corner and to their car
park to walk back. Walking back up many flights of stairs you realise why you
needed to drop the bags off at the front door!The building is really quite remarkable and certainly unique. The hotel is spacious and luxurious and the room we stayed in, "Heloise", was right at the top of one of the corners and was stunning. Very large room, huge bed, an incredible spiderweb style ceiling and amazing views.
We didn’t have too much interaction with the staff however we did feel that the reception staff was rather snotty, as she was on the phone and also on email (where you're almost made to feel "lucky" to be allowed to stay there).
We ate in their Michelin starred, award winning restaurant and although the food was excellent we were disappointed that we were inside. The weather was bad that night and although the room we were in was very nice, it would have been better on a good day. As for the food & service? As you'd expect from a Michelin star. Pure excellence!
Would I recommend the hotel? Yes. Would I go back? Probably not. One thing you need to be aware of is that there isn't really anything to do. Even if you don't want to do anything, you don't really know where not to do it. Stunning building though and worth a look.
Oh, and be sure to have a look at their website for that "great site, but really confusing" feel :)
