We're 2 couples in our 60's, and we just spent a delightful week at Agriturismo Cretaiole near Pienza. This is highly recommended by Rick Steves--and if anything it exceeded even his glowing praise. The staff (Luciano, the patriarch, Isabella the organizer, and Carlo, professional olive oil taster) were tremendous. We had a full slate of optional activities that made the week fly by. Relaxing in front of the fireplace, and having grappa at 10 PM on the verandah were just 2 of the highlights. We'd highly recommend.
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
16895 posts
Thanks for sharing your report!
Posted by
SC
74 posts
Wow! I was just going to post if anyone has been there. What timing. I know Rick recommended it in his 2014 book but it's nice to hear from someone that's actually been there. We're planning our trip for Sept and are looking into where to set our home base. Did this work nicely for you and can you share more about your stay?
Posted by
OP
4 posts
If you have a car we found the location to be ideal. Orvieto, Siena, Montalcino, and Montepulciano are all easy day trips, and you don't have to use the Autostrada to get there (although we also drove on the autostrada and that worked well too). I'm confident you won't be disappointed with the staff either--everybody went out of their way to ensure our needs were met and that we had enough activities on our schedule. We stayed in the old farmhouse in Il Granaio. The Moriuci family has a couple other locations which we didn't see, so I can't speak to those.
Posted by
SC
74 posts
We want to use this as our base to get to the surrounding areas each day so yes, we will have a car. Since meals aren't included, did you have any other chances to just eat with local families? Our TA thinks we will miss the farm experience if we stay here and has suggested looking at something that would have breakfast and dinners. That sounds more like a B&B to me and I'd be concerned about it limiting our time seeing other areas if we needed to be back dinner. How did you handle meals?
Posted by
OP
4 posts
We generally make our own breakfast in the apartment. Carlo left some breakfast goodies outside the door on a couple of occasions, and the La Dolce Vita option meant the apartment was pretty well stocked with breakfast items for the week.
The pick-making evening ended with a group meal on the verandah. There were a couple other dining opportunities on their activities list that were special to us (a dinner at La Porta in Montechiello--5 wine pairing with 5 courses was our favorite). We didn't specifically have a meal with an Italian family, however.
Posted by
SC
74 posts
Thank you, this sounds exactly what I'm looking for. I can hardly wait.