Villa d'Este

We loved the old fashioned feel of the hotel and beautiful views of Fenis castle and the mountains. The hotel was tranquil. Easy parking outside. This is an "ethical" hotel. The ethos is great, it gives young people with special needs the opportunity to gain skills and confidence in a busy hospitality environment. The young staff we met were lovely, and they are really what make the hotel. Where it falls down a little is in the management. The website for the hotel shows a lovely menu. So we booked our evening meal there, confident we had made a good choice. Once we had sat down however, we were presented with a one sheet very sparse menu of 3 starters, 3 mains and 3 desserts. Tired after many hours driving, we chose from the limited menu. The mains were a salad, a vegetable tart, and turkey escalope.Our turkey escalope was the worst meal we have ever had anywhere. Terribly oversalted and resembling a British school dinner in taste & appearance. Quite like anything we have experienced not only in Italy but anywhere in Europe. With so many traditional northern Italian dishes to draw from, one wonders why turkey was chosen. My wife's vegetable tart consisted of two tiny tartlets which were tasteless. None of us enjoyed our meal, except for the pasta starters which were good. The waitress said she would give the chef our feedback, but there was no apology. The menu on the website is misleading, bearing no resemblance to what's actually on offer, and should be amended.

Lovely hotel, fantastic staff, and great location but the most incredible part of this stay was arriving off an overnight and being given a room at 10am!!! Their normal check in is already nice and early at 1pm as is it but they were so nice to give us the room so early! Made all the difference in our stay.