Casa Gala — Restaurant in Montecatini Terme

We were driving through Italy to Sicily and not wanting to book in advance, but knew we wanted to stay near or in Montecatini Alto as my landlady from New York came from there and she used to cook me the most heavenly Gnocchi you have every eaten. So my lovely husband indulged me and we found our way up the hill to a quaint if a little touristy hill top village. It was the Tripadvisor notice that initially attracted our attention. It was about 6.30 in the evening and we asked a perfectly nice lady if she had a room and she told us she did for 65 euros for the night with breakfast. We also asked her if they had gnocchi on the menu and she confirmed she did. In fairness she did show us the room first and we also realised that being above a restaurant it would probably be noisy until about midnight or one am but not really later during the week. So we decided to stay. The room is very small - you can just get around the bed and the bathroom is minute - tiny. We did not check in behind the shower curtain however. Never mind we had made a decision to stay. When we took a shower we were appalled and the stepped hip bath, which had I not noticed would have fallen over as it was a split level bath with a rather paltry shower head. I kept firmly on the upper level of the tiny bath. It is a serious accident waiting to happen - before someone slips and falls in the bath and will certainly knock themselves out on the tiles around the bath. I meant to tell the owners.... anyway we went down for dinner about 7.30 and we were some of the first in the restaurant. Some young staff very politely took our order for drinks and food. Our drinks came and some lovely tomato bruschetta. All going well. .... we waited.....we waited.... the restaurant filled up and we waited. An hour later we asked where our gnocchi was and were told five minutes ... half an hour later still nothing. I was pretty angry and said as much saying that as we were the first why were other people being served before us. Eventually an hour and half later we were told that they had forgotten our order. I went to our room deciding to leave my husband to eat the meal on his own. The edge had come off the evening and this was not now an enjoyable experience. Eventually our food arrived and my husband persuaded me to come down to eat the gnocchi. It was OK and I cannot say more. We ate and then went to retire for the evening. Tired from the days drive we hoped to sleep possibly after 1 pm. Not so. At about 3.15 pm I heard voices - loud and chattering. It went on and on. I thought they must go to sleep soon surely. I thought the sound was coming from within the restaurant below us. At 4.15 I went downstairs to find the chef and two other ladies and a younger person outside on the terrace just below our bedroom window, talking very loudly and obviously arguing over something. I asked them to keep their voices down. They refused and the chef said AHHH you are signura Gnocchi! - I said yes I was the lady who was upset earlier at the dire lack of service. He said the food was gratis, so I said quite right - it was appalling service. I asked them to keep quiet - or better still allow clients who they were charging to be able to sleep. Not so! I was told I had no right to tell them anything! I said they clearly did not give a toss about their clients. He then shouted at me "Camera gratis" - I believe. So I said fine and retreated. The noise carried on for at least another hour. We eventually had about an hours sleep. We rose at 7.30 and had already decided not to take breakfast there. We went downstairs to the bar area in their restaurant to find a rude note left for us saying "La Signura Gnocchi e spezza!" So we took the note, and will scan it to copy and send to the their local Tourist Board. We left a note for the owners to say very simply - If you do not care about your clients, and if you do not provide a service then there is no reward. So no service = no pay, and we voted with our feet . Never again.... avoid...

We were driving through Italy to Sicily and not wanting to book in advance, but knew we wanted to stay near or in Montecatini Alto as my landlady from New York came from there and she used to cook me the most heavenly Gnocchi you have every eaten. So my lovely husband indulged me and we found our way up the hill to a quaint if a little touristy hill top village. It was the Tripadvisor notice that initially attracted our attention. It was about 6.30 in the evening and we asked a perfectly nice lady if she had a room and she told us she did for 65 euros for the night with breakfast. We also asked her if they had gnocchi on the menu and she confirmed she did. In fairness she did show us the room first and we also realised that being above a restaurant it would probably be noisy until about midnight or one am but not really later during the week. So we decided to stay. The room is very small - you can just get around the bed and the bathroom is minute - tiny. We did not check in behind the shower curtain however. Never mind we had made a decision to stay. When we took a shower we were appalled and the stepped hip bath, which had I not noticed would have fallen over as it was a split level bath with a rather paltry shower head. I kept firmly on the upper level of the tiny bath. It is a serious accident waiting to happen - before someone slips and falls in the bath and will certainly knock themselves out on the tiles around the bath. I meant to tell the owners.... anyway we went down for dinner about 7.30 and we were some of the first in the restaurant. Some young staff very politely took our order for drinks and food. Our drinks came and some lovely tomato bruschetta. All going well. .... we waited.....we waited.... the restaurant filled up and we waited. An hour later we asked where our gnocchi was and were told five minutes ... half an hour later still nothing. I was pretty angry and said as much saying that as we were the first why were other people being served before us. Eventually an hour and half later we were told that they had forgotten our order. I went to our room deciding to leave my husband to eat the meal on his own. The edge had come off the evening and this was not now an enjoyable experience. Eventually our food arrived and my husband persuaded me to come down to eat the gnocchi. It was OK and I cannot say more. We ate and then went to retire for the evening. Tired from the days drive we hoped to sleep possibly after 1 pm. Not so. At about 3.15 pm I heard voices - loud and chattering. It went on and on. I thought they must go to sleep soon surely. I thought the sound was coming from within the restaurant below us. At 4.15 I went downstairs to find the chef and two other ladies and a younger person outside on the terrace just below our bedroom window, talking very loudly and obviously arguing over something. I asked them to keep their voices down. They refused and the chef said AHHH you are signura Gnocchi! - I said yes I was the lady who was upset earlier at the dire lack of service. He said the food was gratis, so I said quite right - it was appalling service. I asked them to keep quiet - or better still allow clients who they were charging to be able to sleep. Not so! I was told I had no right to tell them anything! I said they clearly did not give a toss about their clients. He then shouted at me "Camera gratis" - I believe. So I said fine and retreated. The noise carried on for at least another hour. We eventually had about an hours sleep. We rose at 7.30 and had already decided not to take breakfast there. We went downstairs to the bar area in their restaurant to find a rude note left for us saying "La Signura Gnocchi e spezza!" So we took the note, and will scan it to copy and send to the their local Tourist Board. We left a note for the owners to say very simply - If you do not care about your clients, and if you do not provide a service then there is no reward. So no service = no pay, and we voted with our feet . Never again.... avoid...

My husband and I decided to spend a night here after visiting Montecatini Alto earlier in our trip. We booked the B&B and reserved a table for dinner. We were asked if there was anything in particular we wanted to eat when we returned later in the week that was not on the menu and requested lasagna which 'Mamma' was delighted to cook for us. The hosts here are absolutely delightful if a little forgetful - we paid in advance and were glad it had been noted down or we would have been asked to pay again! Our room was at the front of the building overlooking the square with a small balcony. The room was clean if a little lacking in furniture. We had no table or any other furniture on which to place any of our belongings! We had to pile them up on the floor. The bathroom was tiny - definitely no room to swing a cat. Unfortunately the shower, was not clean. It had clearly been overlooked and was extremely grimy. The shower attachment had come away from the wall too making it difficult to use. Dinner was OK. We were not 'wow-ed' by any of the food we ate in spite of the fact that the owner told me when we booked that it was one of the top restaurants in the area and had won awards. However we enjoyed the lasagna and other dishes, but you are really paying for the setting. We also noticed that the starters and desserts we were offered were completely different to the options being offered to the locals eating at the tables around us. The menu is a little confusing and does not offer a vast range of pastas and other dishes you might typically expect to see but obviously, as in our case, they are happy to prepare meals off the menu We did feel though that we were being treated rather differently - tourists vs locals. We went to bed around midnight, knowing that it would be a little noisy for a while as other diners were still eating. This you expect if you are staying at in rooms above a restaurant. However, what you do not expect is the noise that continues well into the early hours of the morning coming from within the restaurant after it has closed. The hosts seemed to have forgotten that they are running a B&B and that there are paying guests upstairs trying to sleep. There was loud conversation between the owners, shouting, disputes, crashing of furniture and doors. They also left the large-screen TV in the bar area on all night long! Complete lack of consideration for their guests. My husband and I had probably 1 hours sleep between us. We got up looking forward to the fantastic breakfast that the owner told us would be waiting for us. Their very nice cleaning lady served us 3 oranges, a cup of stone cold coffee, a basket of stale bread (maybe leftover from the night before?) and some jam. My husband and I asked in astonishment if that was it! Then we asked for some cheese which we did get. But this was probably the worst breakfast we had during our entire 2 week trip. Overall we were disappointed by our stay at the Casa Gala and more than a little sleep-deprived by...