The room was old but very clean & very well appointed. There is an airconditioner but it took a long time to cool the room. It was located in the Piazza & central to everything. The bathroom was huge. Staff are very helpful & offers free Internet.

Great facility,
Great rooms and view,
mediocre food at best and
a very, very, very Grumpy restaurant manager. (middle age man with grey hair and glasses who is one of the owner). The desires or likings of his guest are far from being as important as the newspaper morning news........
Thank god the servers and some of the other staff are smilling because this gentleman is the reason we will not choose that establishment again.

My boyfriend, Dave, and I, Natash, a visited the unforgettable town of San Gimignano in Tuscany for 4 days during our Italian adventure.

We chose San Gimignano as the center point for our tour of Tuscan’s Chianti Region. We read so much about this town, and expected a lot, but nothing compared to the amazing reality. This has to be one of the most magical places we have ever seen! Books and websites do not do it justice. When you arrive to San Gimignano you feel as if you have been transported back to medieval times.

San Gimignano is a walled town in the heart of the Chianti Region of Tuscany. It is located on top of a hill at over 1000 feet above the sea level and surrounded by lush, green countryside. With its 14 original towers still standing intact, it is easy to see why San Gimignano is nicknamed Medieval Manhattan.

After our visit to Florence, we took our Fiat Cubo hot rod on an easy 45 minute drive to San Gimignano.

We chose Hotel La Cisterna because of its central location on the main piazza of the town, Piazza della Cisterna. . This family-owned hotel is charming and quaint with only 50 rooms. We booked a room in their nicest category, with a balcony and the view overlooking the endless Tuscan countryside. It was very comfortable, spacious and furnished with nice antiques. Our room’s balcony was the perfect place to see the sunset while enjoying a Limoncello and some delicious prosciutto. To fully appreciate the beauty of the green Tuscan countryside, we highly recommend this room category. Room rate includes a basic, cold breakfast.

Tourists are prohibited from parking within the town walls. You are allowed to drive to the hotel to unload or load your luggage, but after that you are required to park at one of the remote parking lots. Parking lots 1 and 2 are closest to the hotel. After parking you can take a walk uphill or hop on one of the frequent shuttles that drop you off right in front of the hotel. We chose to take the long walk the first time to absorb the atmosphere, but since it was very hot, we decided to opt for shuttle service the rest of our stay.

During our San Gimignano visit, we dined at several restaurants around town. The best restaurant by far Ristorante Le Terrazze, was right inside our hotel. We dined there twice. Located on the top floor of the hotel, the restaurant offered a warm atmosphere with wonderful panoramic views of the Tuscan valleys and hills. The cuisine consisted of typical, rustic Tuscan dishes paired with delicious local wines. Dinner reservations are required. We highly recommend Ristorante Le Terrazze.

Located on the bottom floor of the hotel is the Bar lounge. You can enjoy a tasty aperitif, cocktail, grappe, limoncello or a glass of wine from mid-afternoon into the evening.

Small, stone streets and piazzas of the walled town boast many shops, restaurants and tasty gelato shops. For something a bit unusual we highly recommend a visit to the Museo della Tortura (Museum of Torture) where you can see many medieval torture devices including the original Iron Maiden, and I am not referring to the rock band.

During our San Gimignano stay we took two day trip. These were wonderful, scenic drives through the lush, green countryside of the Chianti Region.

During the first day trip we visited the quaint villages of Castellina, Radda and Gaiole in Chianti. While in Radda, we visited the Casa Porciatti Wine Store where we tasted some amazing local wines. We bought a few bottles of delicious wine including a rare bottle of Chianti that we were not supposed to open for 3 years. We are anxiously awaiting the time that we can enjoy this wine. This store also offered a nice variety of Limoncello and the owner taught us that authentic Limoncello specifies the amount of lemon peel on the bottle with 15% being ideal.

Continuing on this day trip we visited Castello di Meleto. This beautiful, imposing castle is located on top of a hill near the village of Gaiole. Guided tours of the castle are offered several times a day. Prior to the tour and decided to have lunch at the restaurant at the foot of the hill. We are sorry that we forgot the name of the restaurant, but it is the only restaurant on the right side, at the bottom of the hill on the way up to the castle. We enjoyed some delicious Tuscan dishes and the chef actually gave us his recipes for Tuscan pork and beef and bread soup. We are happy to say that we have made these several times and they always turned out great!

On our second day trip we visited Siena. Being a popular tourist destination, and since parking within city is not permitted, finding parking was difficult. We ended up parking at the bottom of the cliff in the San Francesco parking lot. It is connected to a set of escalators that take you right to the walled city. It is very convenient and we recommend this parking lot. While in Siena we had a lovely lunch and visited a number of attractions including the magnificent Il Campo and the breathtaking Duomo.

Visiting Tuscany was the highlight of our trip to Italy. Having had such a memorable, amazing experience, we hope to return to Hotel La Cisterna in San Gimignano someday soon. Arrivederci amici!

Very nice rooms, good breakfast included, air conditioning was working, internet was available at a reasonable price per day. This hotel is right in the heart of town. Lots of tourists during the day, many free concerts in the evening. We requested and received twin beds. We were without a car and only able to book 1 tour in Tuscany. This was not the hotel's problem. We had a lovely dinner at the hotel's restaurant. Put your walking shoes on, the whole village in up and down hills. They do now have some bus service into the town. All in all a very nice experience. Great views.