Hotel Il Giglio

Description:

• Several years ago, when this hotel in the center of town was taken over by a new family, the tired old pensione was transformed into a board-rated three-star hotel -- serious competition for the youngster Hotel dei Capitani . Now, after an extensive renovation in 2002, it sports a similar rustic theme (beamed ceilings and tiled floors) in slightly smaller rooms with very compact bathrooms, but adds touches of leafy flowers and other grotesques painted on the high reaches of the walls, plus cast-iron bed frames surrounded by functional furniture. The best part is the view (from eight of the rooms) of the cliff-clinging houses of Montalcino, to your left, and the rumpled patchwork of green valleys stretching out below. Il Giglio has a pair of slightly larger rooms, each with a futon chair, good for families. The family also runs a Tuscan trattoria. If they run out of room, the owners will send you to their five rental rooms or one efficiency apartment in the "dependence" on a medieval street around the corner. Some of these have painted stuccoed ceilings, but there are no phones (hence the lower price; the apartment with kitchenette costs a bit more, depending on how many people occupy it).

• © Frommer's 2012

Awards:

Frommer's

•  Recommended 2010