Farm The Old Stables — Hotel in San Gimignano

Pros: +Great location near the beautiful medieval town of San Gimignano. +Very gracious host (Tiziana, family and staff). +Amazing, delicious gut-busting dinners at incredible value (30 euros/person) - with cold appetizers, pasta, main dish, dessert, wine, coffee, digestivo. Pretty much all you can eat. +Much-needed peace & quiet.

Cons/Areas to Improve: Would have been nice to have been offered a tour of the farm. This agriturismo produces wine, special artisinal honey varietals, and olive oil, and they have horses. But we would have loved a quick guided tour. Small bathroom with shower was a little cramped, and the shower was in the middle of the bathroom with a makeshift shower curtain - this is a small gripe. If you don't like smoking/being around secondhand smoke, this place may not be for you. We thought that it was fine and reflected the real character of an Italian farmhouse life. That said, if you don't like secondhand smoke, you may just want to avoid Italy altogether.

Also: In March 2011, when we stayed, all of the other guests were Italian tourists from other regions. This was a great place...

My husband and I love to go horseback riding when we visit somewhere new, so we were so excited to stop here. Upon arriving, they told us there was a very serious issue with the horses (??? Concerning) and we needed to wait 2 hours and come back. We came back and were quickly put onto our horses and taken on the trail. I noticed that the horses didn’t seem to be in very good health about halfway through the ride.||Each horse had a bad cough and stopped frequently to hack up a lung. My husbands horse had a limp and dragged its back leg like it was in pain. And, each horse had a matted tails and overgrown shoes. They also did not stop to give them any food or water between rides, just put the next group on and left. ||Once we were finished we stopped and looked around the stables. These horses are living in very depressing and unacceptable conditions. I am very upset that we gave them any money, if I had a moment to look around before hand I never would’ve given them any money. There was a small pony that looked so horrible, I was genuinely devastated. Please don’t give...

My husband and I love to go horseback riding when we visit somewhere new, so we were so excited to stop here. Upon arriving, they told us there was a very serious issue with the horses (??? Concerning) and we needed to wait 2 hours and come back. We came back and were quickly put onto our horses and taken on the trail. I noticed that the horses didn’t seem to be in very good health about halfway through the ride.

Each horse had a bad cough and stopped frequently to hack up a lung. My husbands horse had a limp and dragged its back leg like it was in pain. And, each horse had a matted tails and overgrown shoes. They also did not stop to give them any food or water between rides, just put the next group on and left.

Once we were finished we stopped and looked around the stables. These horses are living in very depressing and unacceptable conditions. I am very upset that we gave them any money, if I had a moment to look around before hand I never would’ve given them any money. There was a small pony that looked so horrible, I was genuinely devastated. Please don’t give...