agriturismo corte san girolamo — Local services in Mantua

We stayed a week here in early June. It is easy to get to by car from Verona Airport, from other directions it could be tricky for the first time. About 1.5 miles outside Mantova, which is walkable or, much better, cyclable. You can cycle into Mantua without going on a public road except for a tiny bit just before you cross the bridge. The facilities and terrain for cycling in the area are great, and we are not exactly keen cyclists. There are bikes available free from the agriturismo. It is quite popular with cyclists because it lies on the cycle path to Lake Garda. A very warm welcome when we arrived, some good advice as to where to go. The accommodation is part of a working farm, previously a monastery site, growing mostly fruit and rice from what we could see. The bedrooms are a modern block - good size rooms, not luxurious but very good, a fridge in the room would have been nice. Good breakfast with local produce, later in the season there would have been more of their own fruit available. ||Really very nice spot. There could be problems with biting insects in this area, not particularly this agriturismo but because of the flat terrain and all the water, so come prepared for that particularly later in the season. There is a whole lot to see in Mantova, which is not overrun with tourists at all. Parking in the city is difficult but easy enough outside the centre.||There are two good, popular restaurants next to each other within a 15-minute walk of the agriturismo, it is not necessary to go into Mantova to eat, and there are a couple of huge supermarkets...

The property is virtually impossible to find even with a map, miles out of town between an industrial zone and a national park. The owner directed us by phone and we eventually found the place. However his welcome was extremely cold and monosyllabic. The property has fruit trees, a waterwheel and a lovely old farmhouse, but the accommodation is in modern block reminiscent of Butlins! No character at all. Breakfast was home made but consisted mostly of cakes and tarts, only savoury things were bits of hard cheese and meat and powdery, stale bread rolls.||||Postive aspects: there are free bikes you can use to ride into town (it's a fair way, we used the car) or into the national park. It's very peaceful and quiet. Everything was spotlessly clean and brand new in our room and bathroom. The price was reasonable at 70 euros per night, and the farm sells homemade produce... BUT...||||We did not feel welcome, the owner was not hospitable or interested in talking to us, and also was quite mean to his pet dog, kicking it hard for going in the breakfast room. The accomodation did not feel 'Italian' in any way. At night driving back we noticed prostitutes waiting to be picked up and a car was parked up in trees on the road leading to the property entrance. For this reason I would urge women not to cycle back alone...

We received a very warm welcome and that was about the only positive part of our 1 night stay at this "Agriturismo". I found it extremely expensive at Euro 90 for the night.||The website is beautiful with the lovely main house covered in Ivy which is where one would take for granted the rooms would be.... The rooms unfortunately where in a new rectangular complex away from the main house and really sad and cold. It felt like being in a private clinic instead of a hotel.||The bedroom heating was by "hot air"! We specifically booked her for the night to get away from the chaos of the city and stay in tranquility and instead we spent what was left of the evening listening to the heating blowing away hot air to heat the room. Very anoinying to say the least.||There was not even a bottle of water or some welcome snack in the room not having a bar fridge. Not to mention the fact that in the mornng we ran out of toilet paper and there was no spare roll. This for Euro 90!!!!!||The breakfast was very poor. Some old looking bread and homemade cakes and jams. Nothing salty except for some cheese wedges - one would expect at least an array of coldmeats and fresh cheeses considering the area and the "agriturismo"!||I would definately not recomend this place, well surely not at that price.It just is...