Il Gelso — Hotel in Cortona

Its a good location, close to the road that goes up to Cortona. Cortona is a favorite Tuscan town. Small but with enough cafes, restaurants, shopping and atmosphere to keep you interested for several vists at least. Also the usual mediaeval museum, churches and squares that make these Italian towns so interesting. The property itself is orientated away from the road and so you don’t get a sense of being close to a road and its not that busy. The view is pleasant across flat fields. What you do need to bring is Insect repellant and bite cream. Thats pretty much true of anywhere I have visited in tuscany in the countryside, so not specific to this place. The garden and pool are very good and well maintained. The kitchen and rooms are a little older. Air-con is on for sections of the night and you have little/no control. Under normal italian weather the rooms were cool enough. In the heat wave a little hot. Air-con is only available in the upstairs rooms. The downstairs were cooler naturally. Its a big place with lots of rooms and bathrooms. Rooms are simple and there is not much to say. Bed that I slept in was very large and comfortable. Kitchen is on the simple side as well but a nice BBQ in the garden and plenty of local fresh produce at the CoOp supermarket about 5 mins down the road. Very good selection of Tuscan meat, cheese, veg, salad etc plus the wine! The owner is a nice chap, with a reasonable grasp of English (Im not judging - much better than my Italian). You will need him to copy your passports and to pay Tourist tax. He lives close by so is available if there are any problems. We had a large family gathering with 13 people and it worked very well. Lounge by the pool, evenings at the outside long table and a great base for exploring Tuscany and Umbria. Wifi is fine/ok/slightly intermittent in the garden so you can play Spotify. Not great inside the house. Bring bluetooth...

I have never been more disturbed by a place than I was by this. Firstly, we went through an agency who misrepresented the house as being "Casale Cortona" (evidently to avoid showing all the crappy reviews for this so-called agriturismo. The owner had no interest in assisting our group, who requested extra pillows and blankets. It was freezing and damp, and the owner refused to turn on the heat (though we asked repeatedly). Some bathrooms smelled like sewage, the shower heads were crusted over with limescale and literally impossible to use, hot water was missing, there were scorpions, spiders, and other large roach-like insects all around the premises, and to top it off (the icing on the cake) the owner held our groups passports hostage for 24 hours, effectively keeping us unable to leave the premises, all while claiming that we hadn't paid, when we had already made a bank transfer through the app Wise that was (unbeknownst to us) paused. The owner then pushed my friend up against a wall when she held her ground about receiving the group's passports back before completing the payment. We ended up having to call the police. This is truly a nightmare villa, and I wouldn't even recommend it to my...

Paradise in the middle of no where, faraway from busy life and stress.You will find smiling people to welcome you, with good local knowledge from history to cuisine they were very helpful when planning any excursions . It is in the countryside but just4 km to||Cortona 1h to Florence 2h to Rome. Really nice and clean with good facilities and a lovely swimming pool. Rooms are well presented and practical, the area is real stunning and this was the perfect way to really make the most from our holiday. We will be going back!!!! It's...