This was a fabulous rental - besutiful location, easy to get to many of the besutiful Tuscan villages/cities from here, incredible views, comfortable, large home with lots of space to relax and enjoy! Closest village San Casciano was only minutes away by car, easy to find grocery store, ATM, and great restaurants. And the staff at the Castello Niccolo were friendly, helpful and always provided great advice. No screens/air-conditioning was not a problem - great breezes up on the hilltop and beautiful private pool.

We are already looking forward to going back and renting here again!

We have returned from our week at the Castello and I wanted to write to say how much we enjoyed our stay. We enjoyed ourselves so much that we are thinking of traveling there again in June 2007 with the extended family and having 3 villas/apartments.

All of the information you provided with our booking confirmation, along with the Manual, were of great value. Your driving directions were spot on and we found the driving much LESS stressful and much MORE straightforward than we anticipated– which was great! We ate at several of the restaurants which you recommended both in San Casciano and in Florence (La Rinascente roof top). FYI: On our first night, having arrived rather late, we went to Mama Rossa, just around the corner from the castle (turn right at the bottom of the hill, go a couple of minutes and it is on your left at the first tiny village on the way to San Casciano) and found it wonderful. We tried to make time to return but never got to it. One day we went to Montelupo and purchased pottery and another we drove into Florence – literally into Florence.

We made great use of the Wellness Centre at the castle. It is small but the husband and wife therapists are lovely and made us feel very welcome and pampered – just what we were after! We were also very pleasantly surprised to find a washing machine in our villa. You may want to update your description to include this info – we ended up making use of it several times!

Finally, we went in search of Parco di Pinocchio one day and while trying to find it, bumped into a zoo, Giardino Zoologico di Pistoia, www.zoodipistoia.it. We decided our son, nearly 3 years, would probably prefer the zoo, so we abandoned looking for Collodi and remained in Pistoia. It was a very nice little zoo and we would recommend it highly for people traveling with young children. We were > told there are not many zoos in Italy. In fact, the closest zoo the reception knew about was a 2 hour drive away – Pistoia was about 50 minutes. Giardino Zoologico di Pistoia does not have the extravagance of many of the large American zoos, but this is a zoo which definitely has it's heart in the right place – education and conservation. It is privately owned, by the family of the director, and they suffer a bit with limited funding, which appears to come almost exclusively from gate entrance, but they are continually trying to improve conditions for the animals and the experience for the visitor. There is a good children's playground on site, a children's petting zoo with goats, donkey's, etc and some food coin food dispensers for feed for the elephants and giraffes. The zoo itself is cut into a hillside of what was a pine plantation so is heavily treed and planted throughout. It is pretty to walk through even if you don't look at the animals. On the grounds of the zoo is a very nice restaurant, which is available to zoo goers and non-zoo goers as well having its own entrance and car parking. We had some of our most delicious food there, including 3 chocolate desserts which we sampled between us and are some of the best I have EVER had! Again thank you for your help with our holiday.

The little farmhouses surround the 9th century castle, former hunting residence of Niccolo Machiavelli. It is situated in the heart of the Chianti region along the Florence-Siena route near the town of San Casciano Val di Pesa. We were within driving distance of the artistic towns, villages, cultural sites, vineyards and attractions of Tuscany. The farmhouses and apartments scattered among the fields and woods of the property made us feel as if we had been transported to another time and place. Each house on the property has been restored in the traditional Tuscan style with modern conveniences. We stayed in Le Ginestre, a two-storied farmhouse with a private garden, Tuscan fireplace and outside barbecue (see photo). The furnishings are well appointed but staying here is not like staying in a stuffy old museum. When we turned the antique key in lock of the large wooden Tuscan door and step across the stone threshold we somehow felt like we had come into our own Italian home in the heart of Tuscany. Castello Niccolo is very kid friendly and everyone did their utmost to ensure the quality of the accommodations and that our stay was most comfortable, not our experience in other agriturismos.

Buongiorno! Our trip was fantastic. Tuscany is incredibly beautiful (as you know). Castello Niccolo was absolute paradise, we couldn't have been happier with the accomodations. Just so you know, the Il Tiglio apartment does have a washing machine for use just off the back patio. This was a plus we weren't expecting and you may want to list it on your website.

The castle was beautifully decorated, and although there were others there, we felt we had all the privacy we wanted. The view was amazing and there was a fantastic restaurant called Mama Rosa's nearby that was delicious. Great peaceful pool surrounded by lavender. Great wine tasting and tour was worth the cost .