La Stallina — Hotel in Comunità montana del Sebino bresciano

A HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE ON AN OTHERWISE BEAUTIFUL ISLAND!I normally don't write reviews, definitely not negative ones, but I must do so now after my stay at La Stallina. The house/apartments, in all fairness, were nice, clean, well equipped and provided a beautiful view. However, accessing the house is virtually impossible if you have children, if you are elderly or not fit and in good shape. We were traveling throughout Italy as a family of 12, including a 67 year old grandfather with a bad hip, 4 kids ages 5-9 and 2 babies. Needless to say we had lots of suitcases, strollers and lots of groceries for our 4 night stay. -When we arrived at the port with our cars, the person who manages the house greeted us. She told us to leave our cars in a parking lot approx 500 meters up the mountain, far from the port. This lot cost 6 Euros a day per car. After our first night it took us 2.5 hours just to reach our cars after leaving the house.-Once we got off the ferry on the island, we waited for a taxi to take us to the house. we needed two trips at 15 Euros a piece for the ten minute ride. This taxi left us at the bottom of this 60-70 meter, extremely steep inclined path with approx 100 steps which leads to the house. This was a hell of a workout and I say this as a healthy young man. It took us all forever to get up this hill with all our suitcases, strollers, children and babies. We were all out of breath, some of us just collapsed to the ground to rest after this climb. -The customer service we received from the owner of this house was nothing short of disgraceful, disrespectful and with no common sense or reason. We all agreed that we could not stay in this place for another three nights. We told the owner that we cannot stay and offered a cancellation fee in addition to paying for the time we were there of course. He would not hear it, would not agree to give us back any of the stay's fee which was paid by cash upon arrival. I have never in my life encountered such a thing. At this stage we could either leave, basically gifting this horrible person over 1,000 Euros for the remaining 3 nights or we stay. We kept pleading and begging this owner to let us leave and give us back our money until the day we left as scheduled. This person does not deserve any business from anyone until he learns how to treat people and run a business. We will be taking this issue further with the appropriate channels.-Throughout our stay on the island itself, there were rarely any taxis available. getting around on this island involves extreme inclines on unpaved roads. Just reaching the bus station which takes you to the port was about an hour walk in the aforementioned conditions. The taxi driver who drove us to the house on the first night, a driver assigned to us by the manager, never answered his phone after that first night. other taxi drivers who transported us, refused to take us directly to the base of the house, leaving us late at night 1.5 Kilometers from the house. These walks in the dark down unpaved roads resulted in the injuries of an 8 year old and 2 year old, both requiring medical attention. -To top it off, on our third night we never even made it back to the house! We returned late from a celebration, the taxi driver who said he would be available did not answer his phone, thus leaving us stranded on the main land and forced to sleep in our cars. I do not recommend this place to families, to older folk or anyone who is not 100% healthy and fit.I am really not surprised by your disgraceful and unprofessional reply to this review. Instead of apologizing and trying to make things right, you choose to try and accuse us, the guests, of wrongdoing and again misrepresent facts. Thank you for this. We will see...

They state the property is reachable by foot “Monte Isola is located in Siviano, 1,650 feet from the ferry port and 10-minute walk from the center.” but do not say that from that port there is no transportation to the port where they told us to leave the cars, and that in general there are only 3-4 departures per day. The dock is 500 meters walk in an unpaved road not suitable for baby strollers, and to the town center it’s over half an hour intensive steep uphill climb. It’s not a 10-minute stroll as they portray it!! So, after trying the bus from the town center the first day it took us 2.5 hours to get to our cars. When we returned that night, we found out that the taxi driver isn’t theirs, and that he won’t be available. We took a taxi (2 trips due to our number of people = 30 Euros) and this taxi driver wouldn’t take us to the property because the roads are narrow (when asked the property manager told us that it’s true and only the taxi that they had will take us to the property – Why didn’t they tell us we would be at the mercy of this taxi driver??). so, we started our decent to the property at pitch dark conditions on a poorly paved road. During this decent we had kids fall my baby got hit in his eye due to the stroller flipping sideways, I twisted my ankle and both baby strollers damaged, one needed repair and the other brook and had to be replaced. In the morning we wanted to go get some medical treatment due to the eye condition my baby suffered and found that we were prisoners in this property, with the only realistic way to get out was through the port nearby. Walking with my baby on my hands we headed to the port and from there to another town. From this town we took a train to get to our cars and from there to a medical center. This trip took us close to 4 hours to get to the cars. Throughout this time period the property manager didn’t respond to WhatsApp messages (later they said it was off). At that point we decided that we will try to leave the property and move to a different hotel. On another night we couldn’t get a taxi and there were no buses and were forced to sleep in our cars, imagine how much...

A beautiful nightmare. As a family, we go on a vacation once a year. This is the only time we can all be together. This place ruined our yearly vacation! This is not a suitable place for families with kids or babies or anyone who is not ready for extreme exercise every time you leave or go back to the house. Yes, the house is very nice. The view is amazing but we could not enjoy this at all. Starting with misleading information regarding transportation: There are two taxi drivers on the whole island, one who dropped us off at the base of the house and left us to to take all the luggage and kids up this long steep hill. This driver never answered us after that first night. The second driver refused to even bring is to the base of the house, so as not to possibly damage his car, and left us 1,500 meters away to walk through the forest at night. The cost of these taxis was outrageous, especially considering they did not take us all the way. Having my child and my nephew fall, injure themselves and need medical attention due to these extreme walks at night is unacceptable. We were naive to pay the whole fee for our stay upfront. After the first night we realized that this place was not suitable for kids and we requested that the owner contact us to discuss leaving ahead of time (paying for the night we spent and a cancellation fee). The owner refused to talk to us and through a contact person said that he would not agree to return any money whatsoever. We literally begged to leave but they would not even listen or talk to us. This vacation was exhausting to say the least, frustrating and super expensive due to the daily transportation to and from the house. I would not recommend this place, I regret choosing this place and I hope they remove ALL their misleading information...