Pelago: Our Home Base
Pelago is a small Tuscan town in an area called Paterno, about 12 miles east of Florence.
Rental House in Pelago
Since we are photographers and required a car in Italy to go where we wanted when we wanted, we decided to rent a house in Tuscany as our home base. In my research I came across a listing for an "Independent House in Chianti + Bikes" for $45 per night or about $1,000 per month. To see the listings and reviews click the following links (NOTE: the three couples who shared the house at the same time as us left reviews on Air B&B under the names Greg, Stratton, and Matthew in June 2014):
Air B&B
TripAdvisor
FlipKey
The advertisements' photos of the interior looked a bit less than ideal but good enough for what we needed and there were no other options that could compare with the price, especially including a kitchen and washing machine. (Note: I think I came across some hostels with similar prices but we needed the privacy and security of a house because of our camera gear.) In fact, the price of this house was the whole reason we were able to stay in Italy for as long as we did. You sure can't find a hotel for $1,000 a month! But we learned upon arrival that you get what you pay for.
Even with our GPS we got lost trying to find the house. The roads are hilly, windy, narrow, and mostly unmarked in northern Tuscany and none of that is helpful for navigating in a foreign country. In one of our treks down a gravel road a piece of gravel either hit something on the underside of the car or got stuck there. Either way, the car made an awful grinding noise for the rest of the trip. Oops.
When we finally arrived (about an hour late) the owner, Dejan, was waiting for us with a friend. They helped unload our big suitcases and carried them upstairs, which was very nice. Dejan answered a few questions and showed us some things (like the location of the spotty wifi device) but also made it clear that he was in a hurry to get back to his bicycle shop in Florence (which seems to be his primary source of income) so we felt rushed and didn't get to ask all the questions we wanted. We were left with virtually no information on using the bus, the trains, navigating the area, or where to find food or other supplies we would need. Since we later had to figure out all these things on our own we eventually discovered we were lacking much more information than even we had anticipated, making our vacation more frustrating than it needed to be.
The washing machine, for example, has very different settings than what we're used to in the States. Who thinks to ask about that? You assume it will be similar enough to figure out. This one wasn't. We got it to work several times but I couldn't tell you how (keep pressing buttons and turning knobs until it starts?). Dejan did, however, let us know that the "dryer" was a drying rack outside, down the steep hill behind the bus stop. There was nothing to hold on to, especially while carrying laundry, and I have back problems so I ended up setting a drying rack on the tile floor in the kitchen/dining/living room and opening the windows. I also hung clothes from the shower curtain rod. Using the sun as your dryer is a very authentic Italian experience (I got the impression that only wealthier people have electric dryers) but a more accessible drying rack would have been better for paying guests.
Once Dejan left we were able to start exploring and living in the space. We soon discovered the first of many problems: there were no clean towels. There was, however, a laundry hamper full of dirty towels. There was also only one roll of toilet paper - clearly not enough for two people staying five weeks - and we didn't yet know where to get more. Also, the house was very cluttered (as shown in the photos below). Nearly every cabinet and drawer was packed full of something which left almost no room to store the things we'd brought with us. In the photo of our bedroom, for example, (the second floor bedroom in the photos below, which I should have straightened up before photographing) you can see two tall Ikea dressers (nearly all the furniture was from Ikea). The top half of the dresser on the left is the only space that was empty for our clothes. When I asked Dejan about towels he instructed me to look in one of the drawers in this cabinet...a drawer that was full of his clothes. Going through a stranger's clothing is not something a guest should have to do. I think I found one towel but there were two of us so Paul used a dishtowel for a few days until clean towels were delivered.
At some point toward the middle of our stay there was a knock on the door. I leaned out the window and yelled down to inquire who the people were and what they wanted. It was Dejan's parents. They had come with bags and bags of things...so much that I was convinced they were moving in! Seriously. Turns out they were just cleaning the place and bringing more things to add to the clutter. His mother was very nice and answered some of our questions. She made sure we had clean sheets and paper towels and anything else we might need. I wish they'd done this before we arrived.
The biggest problem was that this was not a private house as was advertised. It was a duplex. The first floor and the floor below are occupied permanently by a family. The second floor is the space Dejan advertises - the space we used - housing a bedroom, bathroom, laundry room (accessible only through this bedroom), the kitchen/dining/living room, and a storage closet with the only window on this floor that looks onto the incredible view behind the house. We had to move things out of the way in order to photograph from this window, however.
Then we were surprised to find a third floor, one that I have not seen advertised. It houses a bedroom with very low vaulted ceilings but a bigger window onto the view, a nicer bathroom than ours, and a locked storage room. By far the most astonishing part of our experience was that the third floor was occupied during portions of our stay! On our second day in Pelago we went into Florence and, amongst other things, decided to stop by Dejan's bike shop to say hello and ask for a restaurant recommendation. It was then (not when we met him at the house the day before and not in the six months between booking the house and arriving there) that he informed us there had been a "misunderstanding" and the house had been double booked. There would be two or three couples staying at the house at different times while were were there! WTF!!! We took it in stride and didn't complain since we did not want to ruin the other people's vacations by having their lodging cancelled on them at the last minute but we were not happy about it. We didn't know whether the other couples knew of the double booking or not or whether they knew they'd be in the third floor bedroom since the only ads I'd seen were for our room. Turns out, we'd all been blindsided.
Over that month, three couples stayed in the house with us. We only met two of them and both were very nice but none of us were happy about the situation. Still, we all dealt with it well enough. The first couple was from Australia and we shared good conversation and wine and the wife told me about the great outlet center nearby (more on that below). They had booked the house in November 2013. We booked in January 2014 and on all three websites I listed above the month of June was still completely open. The second couple was from Florida (they had booked around May 2014 so there was no reason the house should still have been listed as available) and we went to Pelago's wild boar festival with them. They also found an incredible restaurant near the house from which they generously brought us back two bottles of delicious red wine and invited us to the best brunch we've ever eaten (more on that in "Dining" below). We never met the third couple because we were in Venice but we returned to find that they had eaten some of our food. I'm sure they didn't know it was ours. Upon discovering this I put my foot down in an email to Dejan, telling him that double booking the place and not telling anyone was unacceptable, that we had rented the house for privacy and security reasons, and that no one else had better show up during the rest of our time there. No one did. A few side notes...the review the third couple left on Air B&B says they booked several nights but only stayed one because of a plumbing/flooding issue in their bathroom and because the experience wasn't what they expected. Welcome to the club. Also, the advertisement for the house says a washing machine is included (some guests were counting on this) but they didn't have access to the machine because it was accessible only through our bedroom which we kept locked in case strangers showed up.
Overall, we and the other couples who stayed with us described the house less like a vacation home and more like crashing at a friend's cluttered bachelor pad. Though the price was what allowed us to stay in Italy for five weeks, the way the house was run and kept was unprofessional and neither Paul nor I would stay there again.
A few more notes on the house...
The bed was comfortable enough, even with my bad back. The shower was far too small and despite all efforts I could not keep the cold shower lining from blowing in on me. It's not comfortable to take a shower with a cold piece of plastic on half your body. There were no bathmats (there were bathmats in all six of the other hotels we stayed in across Italy). We never wanted to risk using the bus to travel into Pontessieve or Florence because the schedule (posted at the bus stop) was confusing and we'd already had so many transportation problems. The neighborhood was quiet, except for the occasional very loud motorcycle or bus and a few nights when neighbors seemed to be having a party downstairs and in the street out front. There is no air conditioning so the only air we got was from opening windows (another authentic Italian experience) but Italy doesn't seem to believe in window screens are so flying bugs quickly make their way into your living space. Lastly, in the first photo below you see a picture of the house with a car out front. In front of that is a slightly elevated entry to the front door and in front of that is the one parking space for guests. Good luck with that since other people sometimes park there. Also, it's on an incline of about 15 degrees so getting out with a manual transmission without backing into other cars (or people) can be a tricky thing to do. There is no other parking available nearby.
Air B&B
TripAdvisor
FlipKey
The advertisements' photos of the interior looked a bit less than ideal but good enough for what we needed and there were no other options that could compare with the price, especially including a kitchen and washing machine. (Note: I think I came across some hostels with similar prices but we needed the privacy and security of a house because of our camera gear.) In fact, the price of this house was the whole reason we were able to stay in Italy for as long as we did. You sure can't find a hotel for $1,000 a month! But we learned upon arrival that you get what you pay for.
Even with our GPS we got lost trying to find the house. The roads are hilly, windy, narrow, and mostly unmarked in northern Tuscany and none of that is helpful for navigating in a foreign country. In one of our treks down a gravel road a piece of gravel either hit something on the underside of the car or got stuck there. Either way, the car made an awful grinding noise for the rest of the trip. Oops.
When we finally arrived (about an hour late) the owner, Dejan, was waiting for us with a friend. They helped unload our big suitcases and carried them upstairs, which was very nice. Dejan answered a few questions and showed us some things (like the location of the spotty wifi device) but also made it clear that he was in a hurry to get back to his bicycle shop in Florence (which seems to be his primary source of income) so we felt rushed and didn't get to ask all the questions we wanted. We were left with virtually no information on using the bus, the trains, navigating the area, or where to find food or other supplies we would need. Since we later had to figure out all these things on our own we eventually discovered we were lacking much more information than even we had anticipated, making our vacation more frustrating than it needed to be.
The washing machine, for example, has very different settings than what we're used to in the States. Who thinks to ask about that? You assume it will be similar enough to figure out. This one wasn't. We got it to work several times but I couldn't tell you how (keep pressing buttons and turning knobs until it starts?). Dejan did, however, let us know that the "dryer" was a drying rack outside, down the steep hill behind the bus stop. There was nothing to hold on to, especially while carrying laundry, and I have back problems so I ended up setting a drying rack on the tile floor in the kitchen/dining/living room and opening the windows. I also hung clothes from the shower curtain rod. Using the sun as your dryer is a very authentic Italian experience (I got the impression that only wealthier people have electric dryers) but a more accessible drying rack would have been better for paying guests.
Once Dejan left we were able to start exploring and living in the space. We soon discovered the first of many problems: there were no clean towels. There was, however, a laundry hamper full of dirty towels. There was also only one roll of toilet paper - clearly not enough for two people staying five weeks - and we didn't yet know where to get more. Also, the house was very cluttered (as shown in the photos below). Nearly every cabinet and drawer was packed full of something which left almost no room to store the things we'd brought with us. In the photo of our bedroom, for example, (the second floor bedroom in the photos below, which I should have straightened up before photographing) you can see two tall Ikea dressers (nearly all the furniture was from Ikea). The top half of the dresser on the left is the only space that was empty for our clothes. When I asked Dejan about towels he instructed me to look in one of the drawers in this cabinet...a drawer that was full of his clothes. Going through a stranger's clothing is not something a guest should have to do. I think I found one towel but there were two of us so Paul used a dishtowel for a few days until clean towels were delivered.
At some point toward the middle of our stay there was a knock on the door. I leaned out the window and yelled down to inquire who the people were and what they wanted. It was Dejan's parents. They had come with bags and bags of things...so much that I was convinced they were moving in! Seriously. Turns out they were just cleaning the place and bringing more things to add to the clutter. His mother was very nice and answered some of our questions. She made sure we had clean sheets and paper towels and anything else we might need. I wish they'd done this before we arrived.
The biggest problem was that this was not a private house as was advertised. It was a duplex. The first floor and the floor below are occupied permanently by a family. The second floor is the space Dejan advertises - the space we used - housing a bedroom, bathroom, laundry room (accessible only through this bedroom), the kitchen/dining/living room, and a storage closet with the only window on this floor that looks onto the incredible view behind the house. We had to move things out of the way in order to photograph from this window, however.
Then we were surprised to find a third floor, one that I have not seen advertised. It houses a bedroom with very low vaulted ceilings but a bigger window onto the view, a nicer bathroom than ours, and a locked storage room. By far the most astonishing part of our experience was that the third floor was occupied during portions of our stay! On our second day in Pelago we went into Florence and, amongst other things, decided to stop by Dejan's bike shop to say hello and ask for a restaurant recommendation. It was then (not when we met him at the house the day before and not in the six months between booking the house and arriving there) that he informed us there had been a "misunderstanding" and the house had been double booked. There would be two or three couples staying at the house at different times while were were there! WTF!!! We took it in stride and didn't complain since we did not want to ruin the other people's vacations by having their lodging cancelled on them at the last minute but we were not happy about it. We didn't know whether the other couples knew of the double booking or not or whether they knew they'd be in the third floor bedroom since the only ads I'd seen were for our room. Turns out, we'd all been blindsided.
Over that month, three couples stayed in the house with us. We only met two of them and both were very nice but none of us were happy about the situation. Still, we all dealt with it well enough. The first couple was from Australia and we shared good conversation and wine and the wife told me about the great outlet center nearby (more on that below). They had booked the house in November 2013. We booked in January 2014 and on all three websites I listed above the month of June was still completely open. The second couple was from Florida (they had booked around May 2014 so there was no reason the house should still have been listed as available) and we went to Pelago's wild boar festival with them. They also found an incredible restaurant near the house from which they generously brought us back two bottles of delicious red wine and invited us to the best brunch we've ever eaten (more on that in "Dining" below). We never met the third couple because we were in Venice but we returned to find that they had eaten some of our food. I'm sure they didn't know it was ours. Upon discovering this I put my foot down in an email to Dejan, telling him that double booking the place and not telling anyone was unacceptable, that we had rented the house for privacy and security reasons, and that no one else had better show up during the rest of our time there. No one did. A few side notes...the review the third couple left on Air B&B says they booked several nights but only stayed one because of a plumbing/flooding issue in their bathroom and because the experience wasn't what they expected. Welcome to the club. Also, the advertisement for the house says a washing machine is included (some guests were counting on this) but they didn't have access to the machine because it was accessible only through our bedroom which we kept locked in case strangers showed up.
Overall, we and the other couples who stayed with us described the house less like a vacation home and more like crashing at a friend's cluttered bachelor pad. Though the price was what allowed us to stay in Italy for five weeks, the way the house was run and kept was unprofessional and neither Paul nor I would stay there again.
A few more notes on the house...
The bed was comfortable enough, even with my bad back. The shower was far too small and despite all efforts I could not keep the cold shower lining from blowing in on me. It's not comfortable to take a shower with a cold piece of plastic on half your body. There were no bathmats (there were bathmats in all six of the other hotels we stayed in across Italy). We never wanted to risk using the bus to travel into Pontessieve or Florence because the schedule (posted at the bus stop) was confusing and we'd already had so many transportation problems. The neighborhood was quiet, except for the occasional very loud motorcycle or bus and a few nights when neighbors seemed to be having a party downstairs and in the street out front. There is no air conditioning so the only air we got was from opening windows (another authentic Italian experience) but Italy doesn't seem to believe in window screens are so flying bugs quickly make their way into your living space. Lastly, in the first photo below you see a picture of the house with a car out front. In front of that is a slightly elevated entry to the front door and in front of that is the one parking space for guests. Good luck with that since other people sometimes park there. Also, it's on an incline of about 15 degrees so getting out with a manual transmission without backing into other cars (or people) can be a tricky thing to do. There is no other parking available nearby.
Dining
Pontassieve
Coop Grocery Store
Train Station
Ruffino
Train Station
Ruffino