Podere Il Casale — Restaurant in Unione dei Comuni Valdichiana Senese

Based on TripAdvisor reviews, we contacted Podere Il Casale and planned a day around visiting the farm while we were staying in Montepulciano, about 30 minutes from Pienza. I emailed about 2 weeks prior to our visit and inquired about the farm tours and dining options. I immediately received a pdf of their activities with prices. I then sent them an email and inquired about the farm tour, lunch, and a possible truffle adventure. I received a reply that all activities required a minimum of 48 hours notice. Great, I thought! That will be no problem. Since we weren't exactly sure if we had an entire day available, I sent them another email asking if we could book a truffle adventure if we gave 1 week notice. I received the following reply: "Of course we can do it!" ||||As it turned out, we would not have the 7 or 8 hours needed to sign up for a truffle hunt adventure. So about 11 days before our arrival, I excitedly sent an email requesting a farm tour for 10:30 a.m. (one of the two times offered on their website and pdf brochure) and submitted a lunch request on the lunch reservation form on their website. In response to my email to book a farm tour at 10:30, I received a return email with nothing but the following: "Sorry we can't." In response to my lunch reservation, I received an email with a question: "Can we move reservation to dinner?"||||In all my 25 years of visiting Italy, I've never received such peculiar customer service. If I wanted to have dinner, I would have booked a dinner reservation, not lunch. I understand that tours sell out and restaurant reservations get fully booked, but their responses were so strange and abrupt, with no explanation that might make us understand and perhaps try for another day. Apparently, they don't need the clientele and don't really place a lot of pride or importance on customer service. It is a very poor way to run a business, especially with so many competitors in Tuscany. ||||Prior to this experience, I suggested Podere Il Casale to family friends who will be visiting Tuscany in August and to our travel agent. I quickly told them about our experience. Our friends nor our travel agent no longer want to take a chance on booking any activities with Podere Il Casale.||||Don't plan your day...

Based on TripAdvisor reviews, we contacted Podere Il Casale and planned a day around visiting the farm while we were staying in Montepulciano, about 30 minutes from Pienza. I emailed about 2 weeks prior to our visit and inquired about the farm tours and dining options. I immediately received a pdf of their activities with prices. I then sent them an email and inquired about the farm tour, lunch, and a possible truffle adventure. I received a reply that all activities required a minimum of 48 hours notice. Great, I thought! That will be no problem. Since we weren't exactly sure if we had an entire day available, I sent them another email asking if we could book a truffle adventure if we gave 1 week notice. I received the following reply: "Of course we can do it!" ||||As it turned out, we would not have the 7 or 8 hours needed to sign up for a truffle hunt adventure. So about 11 days before our arrival, I excitedly sent an email requesting a farm tour for 10:30 a.m. (one of the two times offered on their website and pdf brochure) and submitted a lunch request on the lunch reservation form on their website. In response to my email to book a farm tour at 10:30, I received a return email with nothing but the following: "Sorry we can't." In response to my lunch reservation, I received an email with a question: "Can we move reservation to dinner?"||||In all my 25 years of visiting Italy, I've never received such peculiar customer service. If I wanted to have dinner, I would have booked a dinner reservation, not lunch. I understand that tours sell out and restaurant reservations get fully booked, but their responses were so strange and abrupt, with no explanation that might make us understand and perhaps try for another day. Apparently, they don't need the clientele and don't really place a lot of pride or importance on customer service. It is a very poor way to run a business, especially with so many competitors in Tuscany. ||||Prior to this experience, I suggested Podere Il Casale to family friends who will be visiting Tuscany in August and to our travel agent. I quickly told them about our experience. Our friends nor our travel agent no longer want to take a chance on booking any activities with Podere Il Casale.||||Don't plan your day...

Beautiful Bio Farm - Mixed Impressions As someone who eats clean, veggie and organic, I specifically chose Poderi il Casale. We rented a car from Florence and upon arrival asked at the reception for a wine tasting. They told us to check at the restaurant, but when I asked there, one of the owners (as I later learned) got visibly impatient and responded in a rushed, borderline rude manner that we should go back to the reception and ask it there. The way things were said left me feeling VERY unwelcome, which was really disappointing at the start of our visit, supposed to be a family experience as it was my parents' first time in beautiful Italy. Thankfully, the staff turned the day around. Lucia and Vanessa were wonderful...warm, passionate, and knowledgeable. They took us on a private tour of the farm, shared local stories, and served us cheese and wines with an amazing view of Tuscany. The farm is indeed beautiful, but the tour itself is quite small, so I personally don’t feel €20 per person is worth it. I thought it would be a tour through the vineyard, etc...description and reality were abysmally different. The wine and cheese tasting while enjoying the landscape was SO pretty — that’s the highlight! Don't expect much tho, portions are finger-small as one can see in the picture. At the end, we were charged slightly more than agreed (possibly due to extra meat tasting, which we didn’t request as we’re vegetarians - except for dad, who gladly ate everything). On a positive note, keep on producing that white wine, I loved it! The 3 wine options were great. Animals were sweet and very well treated. Overall, despite a rough start, the experience ended up good thanks to wonderful Vanessa and the view. Might just have been a bad day to the guy who...