New Review Submitted for Villa Eden located in Florence, Tuscany, Italy.
Rental Date: Saturday 5th of September 2015.
Renter: Joe F. (Grimsby, ON, Canada).
Renter Rating: 5/5.
Review Details:
We recently had a group of 10 friends stay here and had a wonderful time. The owners (Danielle and Massimo) are on site and are terrific to deal with. The location in the hills above Florence is very picturesque and offers great views of Florence and Sesto Fiorentino.
The villa is a 750 year old building that the owners spent 4 years renovating. The original architecture is now mixed with modern conveniences. A very peaceful and quiet location. It offers a very authentic Tuscan experience with 9 plus acres high in the hills overlooking Sesto / Florence with many stone walls/ terraces, including many olive, plum and fig trees for our use. Small area of farm animals - hens, geese, goats horses, etc.
While the villa is close to 4 hillside restaurants, a village and Sesto Fiorentino, you definitely need a car to get anywhere due to the steep hillside roadways. Make sure you bring a GPS with maps of Italy – if you do not you will spend many hours lost on narrow, winding one way streets. City centers generally do not allow non resident cars and will fine you if you drive in them.
Danielle and Massimo will prepare a full breakfast for you for a fee and they will arrange for 2 outstanding Chefs to prepare multi course themed Italian meals for you at a reasonable cost. . These two ladies were very willing to explain each course and how they had prepared it...lots of food and variety.
We booked 1 breakfast and 3 dinners. In hindsight we should have booked more. The food was better than the restaurants with plenty of leftovers for snacks a day or two later. It was more relaxing to eat at villa after a busy day out driving/ touring than to have to go out again in evening to restaurant .
Danielle gave us tips on grocery store ( Esselunga recommended ) locations and how to get to the train station. Take the local train to Florence as opposed to driving. Much quicker and no need to drive in heavy traffic. Cost is 1.5 euros per person.
The villa was listed as "Villa Eden" on some web sites but the actual name is Tenuta Lonciano. That is what the locals know it by and the road is well marked with many signs indicating where the villa is located.
Find Massimo’s café (Gran Bar) in Sesto Fiorentino and enjoy his wonderful baked goods!!! The experience was excellent in every respect.
Can not say enough positive things about our hosts, Danielle and Massimo. These two fine hard working gentleman made our stay in Tuscany pleasant and enjoyable ..always available and willing to give advise and help. Danielle was willing to get up at 5am and drive 2 members of our group to the local train station so they could get to Florence to catch the train back to Rome for the flight home. He would not take any payment for doing this for us.
When visiting Florence try the " hop on hop off " bus for good city tour/orientation. The best experience was driving out into the countryside to the small hilltop Medieval/Roman towns....less people, better prices, some have old walls, narrow streets and many out door markets...very quaint and beautiful places.
Some favourites... Lucca .. Drive or take train from Sesto
San Gimignano.. Nice drive
Siena... Take the train as parking is horrible
Montalcino... Nice drive
Greve in Chanti easy drive from villa
And many more....
We booked this villa because of it's history and location and were not disappointed.
Debbie & Gerry, Joe and Sharon, Ellie & Dave, Gloria & Dave, Marlene & Dale
