Il Castello di San Ruffino

What an amazing resort this was! Staying in a castle brings a whole new level of luxury to one’s travel. Rooms were spectacular, enormous, clean, extremely comfortable. Although off the beaten path, it was worth the hour drive to Florence to stay in the beautiful Tuscan countryside at this phenomenal palace. Highly recommend this adults only resort.

Neat 18th century manor house. Rooms are very large. We had the junior suite and it was great. The people were nice and the grounds are well maintained. It isn’t a castle so don’t expect a fortress. But as a manor house it is nice. The breakfast is basic but good. I’d recommend it if you are in the area.

This is wild! I stayed at this place this summer and added a - in my opinion - fair review on the boking.com page after our stay. I gave them a rating of 7, explained why, and I felt I was being generous. The owner decided to be absolutely uncivilized in response, which tells you everything you need to know about them, very "classy and tasteful" as they would say. Idk what is so prestigious about a busted plywood wardrobe and dresser. Everything was already slightly bent. Or maybe a giant Minnie Mouse painting with a fake Louis Vuitton border. I said "all deluxe suites" look like this, instead of "this one", because when I went to see if there was a mistake when assigning us our room, because I couldn't believe there was anything "deluxe" about it, the MANAGER told me that he doesn't know what I'm talking about because all those rooms look like this. So which is it now? Haha, yeah we got the coffee machine after complaining (not the rest of the promised amenities mind you) but it was all dirty and disgusting. About the upgrade we got - I appreciate it, really I do. And my rating reflects that. It's also not like we got the upgrade straight away. My complaints were rudely dismissed and only when my husband went to argue, we got the upgrade. But I can't with clear conscience give a deluxe suite (which I booked) a higher rating. I don't want to mislead other travelers, given this place has an inflated rating already. And thank you for judging me while knowing nothing about me. I actually stayed in many pretty and unique boutique hotels with a soul and charm. But this place has none of that.

Since the recent reviews and photos span both extremes I wanted to add my experience. Overall this was a good location to explore Tuscany from, but not a "resort" and hardly can be called a "hotel" as you are given a room and mostly left to fend for yourself here. The office staff was helpful but not always available. When any concerns were brought to the manager he dismissed them and then turned off his phone (the only contact information - like in case of emergency in the middle of the night - is the manager's cell phone; and there are no phones in the rooms). There may be some updated rooms that look like the photos but they are not all updated. My room was clean and large but had very poor lighting, no safe, and limited wi-fi. The bathroom was very musty and the shower was moldy. Of note many rooms are up narrow/steep flights of stairs with no elevator. The pool was nice but surrounded by mosquitos and no pool towels were readily available.

This was a terrible experience - it is not worth it. The photos are a couple years outdated and very misleading. The room was not clean and had a musty smell. We did not end up staying. We arrived there after driving through the beautiful countryside to arrive at a picturesque location. Check-in was messy, as there was only one person at the desk who closed up after every guest to bring them to their room before helping the next guest. The woman was very kind and helpful about the area while checking us in and then told us to pay for our whole stay in advance. This did strike us as odd, but we paid in good faith. Afterwards we were brought to the room and and she quickly disappeared before we could enter. We had booked one of the junior suites. Upon entering we immediately noticed a very musty smell and the fact that the suite looked extremely old. There were water stains on the ceiling (peeling paint) and the walls, the couch had shreds for fabric and the room was not clean (stain on pillow, dirty bathroom floor, toilet paper was wet (?), unclean shower head, and the filter of the heater/airco was never cleaned… I can go on). This is not acceptable for a four star hotel. In addition, we had been told we would be responsible for cleaning the kitchen as this was not included in the rate. This dirty room, water damage and smell left us with little hope as to the state of what we could not see in the walls… When confronting the woman at the desk she acted very defensive and refused to believe me. We evidently no longer wanted to stay at the property, even in a different room. They refused even a partial refund for our 6 night stay and became more aggressive. We left and booked another hotel last minute instead. We did not see any money back, which is regrettable but preferable over having to spend the night there. This is NOT worth the four star rating! Additional remark: reviews were very negative over the summer and then suddenly we noticed a number of positive reviews (all 5/5 or 100%) without additional text. This seems fishy to us, so therefore I decided to leave this long review to warn other travelers.

We have just stayed 3 nights and seriously do not go by the photos. We initially stayed in apartment 8 . The room smelt musty. The toilet was hard to flush and the air conditioner in the living room did not work. We moved the next day to apartment 1 . It was ok . Both apartments lacked 2 bedside tables and 2 bedside lights. The shower/ jacuzzi bath didn’t work properly but at that point I had given up complaining. The Wi-Fi in both apartments failed to work our entire trip. Everything is shabby and run down but the place was clean. The pool is smaller than you imagine and the sun beds kept breaking with legs falling off. Again I didn’t complain as the staff were nice and what can they do…They try to charge for beach / pool towels . So take your own or demand they are included as the place is not cheap.. It is a shame as the setting is nice and I am sure 8 years ago it was lovely .